Five years ago, any music industry conference would feature hours of discussion about how to get your compact disc into the hands of DJs on FM radio, or tips on how to press and package a CD that wouldn’t get buried on the desk of an A&R executive at some major label. A lot has happened in five years. On Saturday, June 13 and 14, Hillsborough Community College and The Artist and Writers Group hosted the Second Annual Homemade Music Symposium in Ybor City, and in the combined 18-plus hours of discussion, commercial FM radio was not mentioned one time.

Instead, Saturday’s daytime programming included panels and workshops like “Alternative Media Promotion,” “Marketing, Touring and Band Management” and “How to Get the Most Out of a Studio Session.” Panelists included bloggers (Bryan Childs, Ninebullets.net), social networking specialists (Julia Gorzka, Brand Tampa) and local media (Lee Courtney, WMNF; Curtis Ross, Tampa Tribune; Julie Garisto, St. Pete Times as well as Creative Loafing’s Leilani Polk). Mr. Courtney was the only radio personality in attendance. (Tampa’s 88.5 FM is a community station that still allows their DJs to play CDs – they even sometimes play records.).

The Homemade Music Symposium’s goal is to educate nascent and struggling musicians in the ways and means of the music business and industry trends. It also included out-of-town industry folk and special keynote speakers – this year, it was Tunecore’s Peter Wells and Tony Michaelides, a local author from Manchester, UK, who’s colleagues and contemporaries include Factory Records’ Tony Wilson, David Bowie, U2 and The Stone Roses.

Conference attendees were mostly solo singer-songwriter types, with a sprinkling of MCs, publishers and managers as well as other local bloggers and marketers looking to get involved in the music scene or learn about new media. There was a lot of talk (maybe too much) about Twitter and Facebook, and of course the familiar geographical gripe of how Florida is difficult to tour/break out of, because there are no surrounding states (The closest top 10 market is Atlanta). A good portion of the crowd was visibly older, some dressed in flowery shirts and flip flops, and plenty of eyes glazed over when the topics inevitably circled back to “Tweeting” and social networks.

Sorely missing from the panel of experts, especially on the panel labeled “Area Record Labels and Artist Managers,” were representatives from the handful of local Tampa imprints, namely ADD, New Granada and 24 Hour Service Station (Geri X, Win Win Winter and The Beauvilles). 24 Hour owner Marshall Dickson stated that he would definitely be involved next year, but that this time around he just had “too much on his plate.” The only current label owner in attendance was Ivan Pena, who runs Mohawk Bomb Records (Soulfound, Ascending to Avalon and Rise of Saturn). Pena seemed optimistic about the Tampa Bay music scene, and about the fast-changing online industry, but insisted that artists need to tour incessantly and start treating their band like a business or risk failure.

The “Music Critics” panel, unfortunately the last session of the day, seemed to be the most pessimistic. One girl in the crowd asked for suggestions on how to become a music writer. The entire panel discouraged her. It may be in fashion for music writers to be moody and begrudging, but one would think their passion for music could somehow keep their chins up, not to mention grateful that they still have jobs in the age of Rotten Tomatoes and aggregated, user-generated reviews at Amazon.com.

Read the rest of this entry »

Random news bites from the last several days (excluding anything about Michael Jackson … well, mostly).

Regina Spektor’s new album, far, debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 this week and the lovely Russian-born songstress is scheduled to perform on Late Night with Conan O’Brien on Thursday, July 30. Slipping to the No. 2 spot this week are the Jonas Brothers with Vines And Trying Times, which held last week’s No. 1 position. Black Eyed Peas have moved to the top of the charts with The E.N.D. And in case you BEP fans were worried, the title doesn’t foreshadow the band’s immenint break-up, but stands for “The Energy Never Dies.” Clever.

Seattle grunge metal makers Alice in Chains have confirmed the dates of their upcoming world tour, sans lead voice Layne Staley, who, if you recall, faded away into reclusivity before he speedballed to his death in 2002. The tour supports the band’s first new studio release in more than 10 years, Black Gives Way to Blue (in stores September 29). The first single, “A Looking View,” is currently streaming on their MySpace page and definitely has the feel of classic Alice in Chains, complete with the hard-meets-soft harmonies by vocalist/guitarist Jerry Cantrel and Staley replacement, vocalist/guitarist William Duvall. Here’s a statement the band released about the new song: “The song basically speaks to any number of things that keep you balled up inside. A cell of our own making with an unlocked door that we choose to remain in. Focusing our attention inward instead of reaching out to a much larger world. I think this is common to us all. It’s funny how hard we fight to hang on to a bone we can’t pull through a hole in the fence, or how difficult it is to put down the bag of bricks and move on.” Current confirmed U.S. stops include Detroit, DC, Chicago, NYC, Milwaukee, Portland and San Francisco. No telling whether the tour will bring them to Florida. Read the rest of this entry »

The hip-hop bible Vibe magazine, founded by uber-producer Quincy Jones in 1993, has folded. Jones, who sold the publication in 2006 and was unaware of its dire situation, has vowed to bring it back.

Jones said: “[Owner Wicks Media Group] just messed my magazine all up, but I’m gonna get it back. You better believe it, I’m'a take it online because print and all that stuff is over.”

Read more.

Audio Visions South, the Tampa Bay area’s premiere, locally owned, high-end stereo and video store, will throw the second edition of its two-part event called “The Future of Music All Age Access Audio” on Sat., July 25, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The store’s acoustically exquisite listening rooms will buzz with activities.

The gathering will give music lovers a bunch of useful tips on gear, vinyl, accessories and more, and focus on how to maximize your music experience: AVS invites you to bring your digital media, CDs, LPs, iPod and laptop with you. Here are some of the event’s features:

• A Nitty Gritty LP cleaning station will be set up so your albums will be at peak performance levels when you learn to rip them to your computer.

• You will also learn the best way to rip CDs. Once ripped, you can load all your favorite tunes to your iPod and then we’ll help you figure out how to integrate your iTunes library with your in-home Hi-Fi system.

• We’ll go over streaming video and the best download method for your set up. Read the rest of this entry »

This just in from our pal Woody at Live Nation:

Brad Paisley brings his “American Saturday Night Tour 2009” to the Ford Amphitheatre on Friday, October 16. Dierks Bentley and Jimmy Wayne will round out the bill.

Tickets are $57.75 and $47.75* for Reserved Seats and $29.75* for the Festival Lawn. There is also a Festival Lawn 4-Pack available for $99.00. Tickets will go on sale Saturday, July 11 at 10am exclusively at www.LiveNation.com, Ford Amphitheatre Box Office or charge by phone 877-598-8698.

It’s just like the old days. Michael Jackson is ruling the charts.

According to Nielsen SoundScan, which tracks record sales, Jackson’s solo albums sold 415,000 units last week, mostly in the time between the Friday after his death and Sunday night, when scanning for the week closed. 58 percent of the sales were digital downloads.

Because Jackson’s titles are not eligible for the Billboard 200, they are relegated to the Pop Catalog chart, where he holds the top nine positions. Three of his titles — Number Ones, Thriller and The Essential Michael Jackson — exceeded 100,000 in sales, outpacing Black Eyed Peas The E.N.D. (88,000), which claims No. 1 on the Billboard 200. It’s the first time that a catalog album has outsold the No. 1 on the 200, the survey of current albums. This week, Jackson has done it three times over.

Additionally, Jackson titles hold the first four positions on the Digital Albums chart, and six of the Top 10

Read more.

Vinyl:

Fugazi - 3 Songs (7″)
Originally recorded in 1989.

Levon Helm - Electric Dirt
Electric Dirt again finds Levon steeped in tradition in his connection to the land and those who live by it, but this record goes deeper and wider, incorporating gospel, blues and soul elements in a bracing collection of originals and carefully chosen outside songs.

Wilco - Wilco (The Album) LP+CD
Wilco’s seventh combines the intimacy of its previous studio disc, Sky Blue Sky, with the experimentation of A Ghost Is Born in a set that boasts strong melodies and often unabashedly pop arrangements. LP includes the album on a CD.

Pete Yorn - Back & Fourth

Read the rest of this entry »

Uh oh, the 40th anniversary of Woodstock is about a month and a half away. Did you remember? If not, it’s probably due to the distinct lack of buzz, seeing as there is no official concert scheduled, although boosters keep adding “as yet” in hopes that original co-producer Michael Lang will manage to put together a show in New York’s Prospect Park.

A handful of mostly lame events are planned for different parts of the country, and a tour called Heroes of Woodstock — featuring Mountain, Jefferson Starship, Tom Constanten (repping Grateful Dead) and others — has 16 dates on the books (none in the Southeast). In all, though, it would seem as if folks have other things on their mind than memorializing the watershed cultural event.

That doesn’t mean it’s a complete wasteland. Sony Music has released a well-thought-out group of reissues called The Woodstock Experience, five two-CD packages pairing a classic 1969 album and a complete Woodstock performance. Sony catalog artists Santana, Janis Joplin, Johnny Winter, Jefferson Airplane and Sly and the Family Stone got the treatment.

Thirty-three acts performed at the Woodstock Music & Art Fair from Aug. 15-18, 1969, including such long-forgotten names as Quill, Sweetwater, Keef Hartley Band and Bert Sommer. (The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, The Byrds and a handful of lesser-knowns declined invitations. Jeff Beck, Iron Butterfly and Joni Mitchell canceled.)

Only a handful of the performances have been immortalized, mostly via the 1970 film Woodstock and its soundtrack. And Sony can legitimately boast three of them in this collection: Sly, Santana and Joplin. Winter did not make it into the movie and while Jefferson Airplane were represented with two songs in celluloid, their set has not earned the same historical cachet as the top three.

Let’s have us a closer look at these twofers. I’ve ranked them on their merit as live performances. Read the rest of this entry »

According to industry insiders, three Michael Jackson albums — Number Ones, The Essential Michael Jackson and Thriller — each sold 100,000 copies last week. The sales tracking week ended at the close of business on Sunday (June 28) night and will be reported today. That means the bulk of the sales took place in the three days after Jackson’s death.

Those six-figure tallies would’ve put the three discs at Nos. 1, 2 and 3 on the Billboard 200 —slightly ahead of the Black Eyed Peas’ The E.N.D. — but catalog albums are not eligible for the album sales chart, so Jackson will instead dominate the Pop Catalog survey.

Read more.

If you and three to five of your friends plan on attending a Live Nation show this summer at Ford Amphitheatre, the company waves the service fees this Wednesday, July 1. So, basically, you save money on four- and six-packs of tickets for the following shows: blink-182, Coldplay, Crue Fest 2, Def Leppard with Poison and Cheap Trick, Depeche Mode, Incubus, Rascal Flats with Darius Rucker, and the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Tour featuring Marilyn Manson and Slayer. Here’s the release: Read the rest of this entry »

by Denis Baldwin

This year’s Homemade Music Symposium played out over the weekend at the Ybor HCC campus, bringing together musicians, singer-songwriters, music industry professionals, entertainers, writers, photographers and most every other aspect of the music industry to discuss the state of music, the nature of creating and marketing musicians and give a taste of things to come.

Overall, the symposium was a great success. Saturday opened with “Poets of Popular Song, The Lyrics and Lyric Writers of the Great American Songbook,” featuring the piano work of Paul Wilborn and the 107-year-old Rosa Rio. After their performance, many of the attendees broke for the lunch while the rest of us sat at our tables and handed out free swag and met with people.

More pics after the jump: Read the rest of this entry »

Billboard reports:

On the table for consideration is a Janet Jackson/Jackson Brothers tribute tour to celebrate the life of Michael Jackson, according to sources.

The proposal is either that the Jacksons fulfill some of Michael’s London shows, or do a U.S. tour where they would perform his hits and theirs with him. Janet would be the star of such a show, substituting for Michael since none of the brothers would be remotely capable of being
the lead performer.

Read more.

Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse
Dark Night of the Soul

From the first reports of a new project by artist/producer Danger Mouse and singer/multi-instrumentalist Sparklehorse (Mark Linkous), to the freaky 16-second video revealing filmmaker David Lynch’s hand in its artistic direction, to its Internet leak after the dispute with EMI turned into a permanently unresolved issue, Dark Night of the Soul has been generating a shadow-shrouded hype that reflects the album’s own bewitching eeriness.

The 13 songs were written by DM and SH in collaboration with a noteworthy cast of nearly a dozen guests, who not only provided vocals but helped compose and produce their respective tracks. Each one retains its own individual feel, but all remain within Dark Night’s moody boundaries and feature DM’s skilled multi-layering production techniques. Read the rest of this entry »

Ed. Note: What follows is a repost of an item by CL Marketing Director Joran Oppelt from his recent trip to SXSW. At the time, I thought it was just a really cool video. Today I think it’s become something more. You can see Joran’s original post here.

Quincy recalls his first encounters with Michael Jackson and their work on the best-selling records Off the Wall and Thriller, as well as the birth of MTV and how they broke through the “no black artists” mandate.

This exclusive CL TV video was shot in March at Jones’ 2009 South by Southwest keynote address. Video after the jump …

Read the rest of this entry »

Here are some links to various stories about Michael Jackson’s death and its aftermath:

Jermaine Jackson explains details.

A look back at Michael Jackson’s life in photos.

Reactions from friends and stars: Britney Spears, Diddy Combs, Quincy Jones and more.

AP: “World Mourns King of Pop”

Jackson’s scheduled London concerts leave a tangled business mess. $85 million in advance ticket sales.

Billboard; King of the pop charts.

MTV News: “Michael Jackson and MTV — From Epic Videos to Show-Stealing Performances.”

Never has so much triumph dissolved into so much tragedy.

From kid star to King of Pop to punchline. And now dead. Michael Jackson was 50 when he died earlier today of a heart attack. A shock — but, then again, when it came to Michael Jackson, nothing was.

Some people will dismiss Jackson’s death as a fitting end to a twisted caricature of a life. They might even get a chuckle out of it. I won’t. I’m hit. This is one of those celebrity deaths that I’ll remember where I was when I heard about it. (As it turned it, it was at Cirque de Soleil; I left soon after.)

I’m upset, more than I guess I thought I’d be. But I’m focusing on memories. I was there, watching, when he wowed the country with his pre-adolescent charm on Ed Sullivan, his skin the color of milk chocolate. I was there, watching, as he turned into a man, still with childlike charisma.

I was there in 1979, in an arena in Honolulu, when he performed with The Jacksons, but the most riveting material was from his new album, Off The Wall. I was there, in front of the TV, when he first did the moonwalk on Motown 25 and folks talked about it for days, months. I was there, a newly minted music critic, giving Thriller all of three stars.

And yes, I was there when he gradually sanded his skin to the color of chalk and remade his nose into a button. Read the rest of this entry »

He might not actually be dead yet, but TMZ is reporting that pop master Michael Jackson, who suffered a cardiac arrest earlier this afternoon at his Holmby Hills home, has passed away at age 50. According to them, the paramedics said that they were unable to revive him. (Other publications, like ABC News, MTV.com, NPR and the New York Times are not so quick to jump to the RIP conclusion.)

So is Jackson alive or dead? Is this the Shrodinger’s Cat paradox being played out right in front of our very eyes? Keep watching the headlines…

All photos by Tracy May; to check out the complete gallery, click here.

The last time I was at The Ritz was for the fateful Corrosion of Conformity show where (4) people were stabbed with (1) ultimately dying. I’d heard a lot about the near million dollar renovation the venue had gone through prior to reopening a year (really? it’s been a whole year?) ago but I had not seen it yet. What better chance than for their free, one year anniversary show featuring one of my favorite songwriters, Grayson Capps (pictured with hair swinging at right)?

The venue itself is beautiful and the acoustics are dramatically improved. Granted, I am judging the latter on one show but Grayson and the Stumpknockers were loud and they sounded great and the re-configured ballroom is infinitely more conducive to live music than it used to be. While this isn’t supposed to be a review of the venue I wanted to mention it ’cause they did a fantastic job and I look forward to seeing more shows there. Read the rest of this entry »

For those of you who like free music and indie bands repped by Paper + Plastick Records (Foundation, Farewell Continental, Gatorface, We Are The Union, Assassinate The Scientist, Protagonist, Blacklist Royals, Landmines, Coffee Project and Andrew Dost), label founder/owner Vinnie Fiorello (also of Less Than Jake) is offering the label catalog, for free, in honor of his birthday. Here’s the release:

Gainesville, FL – Vinnie Fiorello, drummer of ska/punk legends Less Than Jake and owner of Gainesville-based independent label Paper + Plastick Records, is celebrating his birthday in style this year. To commemorate, the music industry vet is giving away P+P digital catalog (except the latest release, Shook Ones’ The Unquotable A.M.H.) to the first 200 loyal fans that visit www.audiblediversiongroup.com/paperandplastick/browse/DigitalReleases at 3PM EST. “My birthday seemed like a logical day to do this” admits Fiorello. “While I’m celebrating with tacos and beer, people can celebrate with some of my best friends and favorite bands on P +P.” “I’m doing this because I want to share the music I love. Maybe you heard the band name or maybe you heard a song or two… so now is the time to dive into the P+P catalog for free at 3,” he says. A lucky 200 fans will receive over 80 free tracks, from artists such as Foundation, Farewell Continental, Gatorface, We Are The Union, Assassinate The Scientist, Protagonist, Blacklist Royals, Landmines, Coffee Project and Andrew Dost. Read the rest of this entry »

You know what they say, “when it rains, it pours,” and such is the case this week with three shows in four days. While I don’t expect anyone else to adhere to such a rigorous schedule, I do think you can find something you like in one (or more) of these shows. If you do make it out to any, find me and we’ll tell fish tales over a beer.

Wednesday, June 24 @ The Ritz Ybor: Grayson Capps

———–>THIS IS A FREE SHOW<——-—-

I am so excited about this show. Honestly, I just assumed Grayson Capps would never come to Florida. BUT! Here he is and he’s bringing his full band, The Stumppknockers, with him. If the sound of Southern soul mixed with back-country stomp with a little road-house blues sounds like something that might tickle your fancy, you need to get to The Ritz on Thursday night for this show.

When I last wrote about Grayson I said, “I find myself drawn to the drunks, whores and vagabonds that haunt Grayson’s songs. They’re like old friends you keep up with via letters in the mail, and with a new album comes new updates.” It’ll be nice to finally meet this motley crew of characters in person.

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(MORE SHOW INFO + MP3s AFTER THE JUMP)
Read the rest of this entry »

VINYL:

Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso UFO - Dark Side Of The Black Moon: What Planet Are We On?
More proggy psych from Acid Mothers Temple — mixes Pink Floyd with fuzzy wah guitars and cosmic sounds. Double LP includes an exclusive bonus D-side track.

Neko Case – Middle Cyclone

Dinosaur Jr. - Farm
Double LP comes in beautiful litho-wrapped gatefold jackets and includes MP3 download.

Earth - Radio Live
Vinyl only release. Radio Live is comprised of two tracks from a live radio broadcast on KFJC (12/31/07) and two tracks from a live performance in Vienna on their 2008 European tour.

God Help The Girl - God Help The Girl
After the success of Belle And Sebastian’s most recent album, The Life Pursuit, band leader/singer/songwriter Stuart Murdoch decided to pursue the writing of a rock musical scored for female singers. After auditioning vocalists via Internet contests, he made his choices and, with all members of Belle And Sebastian backing him up, recorded this record. It combines the strengths of early Belle And Sebastian records in a broader musical palette, drawing equally on musicals, ‘60s girl groups, ‘80s indie, and classic pop. LP includes MP3 download.

Green Day - Know Your Enemy 7”
Ultra-limited edition 7” single features the non-album B-side “Hearts Collide”. We have a limited few remaining after Vinyl Saturday! Read the rest of this entry »

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:

Read the rest of this entry »

The Killers will play UCF Arena in Orlando on Thursday, October 1.

Tickets are $52.00 for the General Admission Dance Floor, $38.00 for Reserved Lower Bowl Seating and $35.00 for Reserved Upper Bowl seating. They go on sale Saturday, June 27 at 10 am at LiveNation.com, charge by phone 877-598-8698 and all TicketMaster outlets. Day of show the price increases to $55.00 for GA Dance Floor, $41.00 for Lower Bowl and $38.00 for Upper Bowl.

This just in from our friends at Ruth Eckerd Hall. Congrats.

Entertainment industry trade publication Venues Today announced that Ruth Eckerd Hall ranked #10 in the world in venues having 5,000 seats or less. With that same ranking, Ruth Eckerd Hall is #2 in venues having 2,500 seats or less.

This ranking is based on concert and event gross from April 16 to May 15 2009, with 11 performances during that period. Ruth Eckerd Hall ranked higher than such prestigious venues as the Arie Crown Theater in Chicago, the Bob Carr Performing Arts Center in Orlando and The Balboa Theatre in San Diego, California. Read the rest of this entry »

In the late 1980s, Living Colour broke down the color barrier in rock radio with their hit album Vivid. The all-African-American band’s style of razory metal with tinges of funk and the an avant-garde proved that pigmentation didn’t matter when it came to power chords and thunder beats.

Living Colour broke up circa 91, then reunited in 2000. They have a new studio album, The Chair in the Doorway, set for release on Megaforce Recordson Sept. 15. For those of you who lived through the days when hair metal ruled the rock airwaves, it wasn’t only Nirvana et al that brought down that wretched reign. Living Colour and other bands played a part as well. Here’s the full text of a press release sent out about the new record: Read the rest of this entry »

Based on sheer numbers, Bonnaroo is a beast.  70,000 people invade Manchester, Tennessee, making it the 6th largest city in the state for over three days. Now your average Bonnarooian is quite a bit different than   your typical Tennessean — full of booze, THC and god knows what else.  It’s a crazy place.

Where else could you find Jimmy Buffett, Ani Difranco, Snoop Dog, Al Green and Bruce Springsteen? For better or worse, Bonnaroo is biggest and baddest of the American music festivals. With 13 stages and tents, hundreds of vendors, and a pretend Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the well-oiled machine of Roo is now in it’s 7th year and going strong.

Simultaneously a radiant clusterfuck and glorious throwdown, it’s hard to imagine a bigger party. And with any party, there’s always the good, the bad and the ugly. For our purposes here, let’s focus on…

The Good Read the rest of this entry »

Courtney Love is nuts. (Newsflash, right?) Years of drug abuse will do that to a person. She uses the Internet predominantly to bicker with Ryan Adams and wonder aloud, “What happened to all that Nirvana money!?”

Sometimes, she covers both topics simultaneously! She either hasn’t quite grasped or doesn’t give a shit about Twitter’s 140-character limit, opting instead for stream-of-consciousness commentary and storytelling sometimes interrupted mid-word. And she’s still close pals with lone original Smashing Pumpkin Billy Corgan.

Love has worked intermittently on her second solo album Nobody’s Daughter over the past three years. Because of various false starts and Internet leaks, the disc is three producers and four studios deep. Now it seems Nobody’s Daughter won’t even be a Courtney Love solo album. Courtney has taken a page from Corgan’s playbook and resurrected a dormant, yet familiar name.

Hole. Read the rest of this entry »

“There were a lot of people crying,” says Blur bassist Alex James describing the crowd’s reaction to their first show in nine years at the East Anglian Railway Museum in Essex on June 13. This museum is coincidentally where Blur played their first show back in 1988.

The Britpop laureates played a two-hour set including a lot of their more popular songs such as “Girls & Boys,” “Song 2,” and personal favorite of mine, “Parklife.”

Not only are the boys back to playing shows all this summer, but also may be delivering the masses a new album in the future. According to a BBC interview the band is not commenting on the definite confirmation of new material, but they are jamming and getting along. I guess that’s as good as we can all hope for at the moment. My question is: When are we going to see a new Gorillaz album? I’m looking at you, Damon Albarn!

Video after the jump.

Vist CL’s main music site.

Read the rest of this entry »

“I got to play with Bruce. That’s my hero.”

Trey Anastasio said that. After Phish jammed with Springsteen at Bonnaroo. The unlikely pairing joined forces for the R&B classic “Mustang Sally” as well as Springsteen’s “Glory Days” and “Bobby Jean.”

Added Phish bassist Mike Gordon, after witnessing Springsteen’s three-hour set at the festival, his first time: “It’s great to know that it’s not all hype or anything, there’s such a solid musician and songsmith standing there, and then to be so nice and such a gentleman at the same time.

Read a more detailed account.

Check out CL’s main music site.

Dad’s dig music. I’m a dad, and if I didn’t work at THEE record store (and already have them), these’d be on my Father’s Day list:

Booker T - Potato Hole
This album has it ALL. The funky soul of classic Booker T, rocking guitar of Neil Young and it grooves to the backing of the Drive-By Truckers, poignantly tying together the fact that Patterson Hood’s father, as a Muscle Shoals studio musician, was an integral part of the southern soul sound, that Booker T. spawned.  See how this Father’s Day gift has several levels to it?!

Ramblin’ Jack Elliott - A Stranger Here
This is an album of blues covers. I thought I never needed to hear some of these songs again (they’d been covered SO much!), but they’ve absolutely been made fresh by Jack’s gut-bucket voice, the
musicianship of Van Dyke Parks and David Hidalgo (Los Lobos) and Joe Henry’s production.

From the liner notes of A Stranger Here, Henry writes: “I pitched the idea that he interpret country blues music from the Depression era of his birth… songs as dark, funny and strange as is he and the times that produced them, and also ones that still resonate in these turbulent days.” It’s amazing how someone nearly 80 years old can interpret these aged classics in such a contemporary manner. I guess that’s why we call them “artists.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Bonnaroo has averaged just under one death per year during its eight year run. Last year there were no fatalities. This year, a body of a man in his 20s was found by the cleaning crew on Tuesday after the festival. The body showed no signs of trauma, and police speculated that the man’s death was either drug-related or from a pre-existing medical condition.

Read more

All photos by Mike Wilson.

“You guys are bringing it so hard, the power went out,” said lead singer Adam Lazarra of Taking Back Sunday (pictured) when, midway through their set at The Ritz in Ybor City, the power suddenly went out while the crowd continued singing the song to the beat of only the drums.

Needless to say, Taking Back Sunday, Anberlin and Envy on the Coast brought it, and brought it hard. Except for the bass being turned up way too loud, and occasional feedback interfering with a set, this show set the standard for alternative rock shows. (MORE PICS AFTER THE JUMP.)

Read the rest of this entry »

VINYL SATURDAY

From the folks who brought us “Record Store Day” comes “Vinyl Saturday.” Once a month, we’ll be waxing you poetic with special, limited releases made specially available on Vinyl Saturday. If you’re interested in any of the limited editions, you may want to get to the store early — they won’t last long! The first Vinyl Saturday is this coming Saturday,  June 20, and will feature:

WILCO
This is a special 7″ single being released 10 days before new album (WILCO, the album comes out on 7/3)! Limited to a run of 3,800, the 7″ includes the tracks “You Never Know” and “Unlikely Japan,” an early 2003 version of the previously unreleased track “Impossible Germany.”

GREEN DAY
The vinyl version of the CD Single “Know Your Enemy” will be available at Vinyl Fever on 6/20. This vinyl is limited to 5000, and is NUMBERED. The b-side is an unreleased studio track called “Hearts Collide.”

MODEST MOUSE
Second in a series of 7″ singles being released. This one is entitled “Autumn Beds” and the b-side is “Whale Song.”

PETE YORN/SCARLETT JOHANSSEN
These two are releasing an album in September through Rhino (not to be confused with the Pete Yorn release on 6/23 through Sony), and we’ll have an advance 7″ with a duet from both of them AND a Pete Yorn demo on the other side.

ALSO, the following artists have vinyl scheduled for a street date of 6/23, but us indie retailer participants are getting them EARLY, so we can sell them to you on 6/20:

Al Green (classic reissues) - Those Darlins - Wolves In The Throne Room - Wino - Patterson Hood - Earth - Woggles - Chesterfield Kings - Cocktail Slippers and more. Read the rest of this entry »

The new single from the well-reviews new Sonic Youth album, The Eternal, is Sacred Trickster, sung by Kim Gordon.

The video features a trio of young girls going all commie and busting up a rooftop party.

Video below the jump:

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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.

See the horror below:

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