Archive for the 'Honoring Lives' Category
MYSBLT: NYE 2010, Vampire Weekend, Coachella 2010, Jay Reatard
Author: Taylor Roberts
In this issue of Music You Should be Listening to:
Welcome to 2010! The Indie music world has been gearing up for these first couple months and MYSBLT is all a buzz for things to come. New Years Eve is one of the best nights for hearing good music, but only if you are willing to spend a little extra. So I will let you in on the secret to dropping less coin without sacrificing good tunes. For those of you who have been on the edge of your seats waiting for the new Vampire Weekend album, I will let you know what I think of my first couple listens. Want a hint? I am not happy. On the side of recent news, the Coachella 2010 lineup has been announced and we finally have news from the guys at Brand New who have been tormenting their fans with the possible release of God and the Devil on vinyl. And finally, MYSBLT will pay its last respects to indie garage rock mastermind Jay Reatard who tragically passed away on January 13th at the age of 29.
read comments (0)Woodstock Memoir Marks 40th Anniversary
Author: Bob Bembridge
There have always been two Woodstocks – the event and the myth.
Woodstock the event consisted of lots of rain, little food, bad acid, and sometimes bad music. Woodstock the myth, according to festival promoter Michael Lang, gave young Americans “a sense of possibility and hope” that “spread around the globe.”
Lang’s long-awaited memoir, The Road to Woodstock, sheds new light on the event even as it offers more undeserved hoke about the importance of those three days at Bethel, NY in August 1969. Read the rest of this entry »
BILL BRUFORD – A DRUMMER OUT OF TIME: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Author: Jeff Boule
The Bill Bruford Autobiography, definitive reading for progressive music fans, jazz fans, music practitioners from the novice to the professional, this book is the 21st century musician's survival guide. (Photo permission courtesy of Bill Bruford)
A few posts ago, I wrote about Bill Bruford, announcing his retirement from public performance as of the first of this year. I was angry, I was hurt, I felt abandoned, and most of all I was disappointed that one of the primary warriors of mundane music had laid down his small wooden swords for the last time. I could not understand why the world’s greatest drummer would hang it up while he was still undeniably a force in the industry, the industry he labels as “the industry of human happiness”.
Sometimes you need a good autobiography to make things clear, to garner the inside perspective. But be warned, and I was taken aback by what I encountered, the ending of this book is not what you would expect from a player of Bruford’s qualifications.
Beatles Bio Looks Behind the Myths
Author: Bob Bembridge
To London record executives in 1962, Liverpool may as well have been Timbuktu.
Small wonder that a provincial rock band calling itself “The Beatles” couldn’t beg, borrow, or steal a record contract. How a desperate Brian Epstein, after a crushing rejection by Decca, finally secured a recording contract is one of the many engaging stories told in Bob Spitz’s The Beatles: A Biography. Read the rest of this entry »
The Dead Tear Down the Spectrum
Author: Andrew Overton
I never had the chance to see the Grateful Dead. Jerry Garcia died when I was 7, but since high school I’ve been a student of jam–the Dead, Phish, Allman Brothers, etc. I not only have admired the musicianship of these bands, but envied their fans for the epics concerts they were able to attend.
My parents, both well aware of this envy, gave me an early birthday present this week: tickets to see the remaining Dead at the Spectrum. Warren Haynes (lead guitar) and Jeff Chimenti (keyboard/organ) were asked to join the original members Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, and Bill Kreutzmann for an American tour. For most of the tour the setlists have been packed full of hits and Saturday night was no exception. It became almost immediately apparent to me that these old fellas could still play.
A LIVING TRAGEDY… THE WORLD’S GREATEST DRUMMER RETIRES FROM PLAYING LIVE
Author: Jeff Boule
With each day, more and more disparaging news comes across our collective desk. This could have been titled The Death Of Progressive Part Two. The world’s premiere drummer, Bill Bruford, announced on his website his retirement from public performance effective the first of this year. Before you all get bent out of shape about who the best drummer in the world is, remember, at the top of this post it SHOULD say “opinion” or “editorial”. Remember, you don’t have to agree with my opinion. But let’s examine what, in my opinion, makes Bruford the best.
The Sixties Live! — on You Tube
Author: Bob Bembridge
Robin Williams said if you remember the Sixties, you weren’t there.
One thing you couldn’t forget was the music. Bob Dylan sparked an artistic renaissance in rock music which hasn’t been equaled since. Most of those great songs of the Sixties are now available on You Tube. Here are a few of my favorite music videos which you can check out for yourself. (I’m recommending the You Tube video which contains the best available sound recording of each song.) Read the rest of this entry »
Bill Graham Presents
Author: Anthony Medici
Took a bit of a detour from my jazz reading to dip into “Bill Graham Presents,” a memoir in interview form by Graham and Robert Greenfield, who conducted interviews of Graham and the many individuals whose paths he crossed. I never met Graham, but, as owner and producer of the Fillmore East, he played a vital role in my life at one time, as he did for others as well. As the promoter of the original Fillmore Auditorium and Winterland in San Francisco, follwed by the Fillmore West, also in San Francisco, then the Fillmore East, in the East Village of New York City, Graham was a major force on the rock scene of the 1960s. As a dazed and confused 15 and 16 year old, I made regular pilgrimages to the Fillmore East, no small task at that time, given the very raw nature of the neighborhood and its denizens. There, I saw many of the great acts of rock’s classic era, often before the “broke” big on the scene. Read the rest of this entry »
As many know, the MTV show Total Request Live, known by its nickname TRL, ended its ten-year run on November 16. Many fans and musicians, who made their big breaks appearing on the show, attended the “Total Finale Live” special. I’m guessing millions more saw it on television. It was a poignant ending without the fact that it was the end of a series. Deeper thinking, though, reveals something more painful. It is the official end of an era that has been struggling to stay alive for years, its absence seen but never spoken of despite being so obvious…the end of “M” in MTV. Read the rest of this entry »
Happy Birthday John Coltrane
Author: Anthony Medici
This post is simply to pay homage to John Coltrane, born September 23, 1926, in Hamlet, NC, died July 17, 1967 in Long Island, NY. While I am not quite ready to join the St. John Coltrane Church I can understand the impulse to canonize this great musical spirit, for Coltrane is one of the great musical artists of the 20th century. I say that, I think, without exaggeration. The term “great” or “greatness” are often tossed around all too casually, but there are a few spirits that deserve it: Trane, Miles, Monk, Mingus. They changed our musical language, and hence our world, in profound ways. Read the rest of this entry »
Thinking About: Oscar Brown Jr.
Author: Anthony Medici
There has always been a relative paucity of male jazz singers. This is one area of jazz where women dominate. The only male jazz singer today who commands my respect, if not always my appreciation, is Kurt Elling. His “Man in the Air” is masterful, and leagues above what any other male jazz singer is doing. Elling’s respect to Mark Murphy is admirable; his infatuations with Jon Hendricks is less well-advised. But Elling is generally adenturesome and often fearless, and for that, he is worthy of respect and attention. Most others are to busy trying to channel Sinatra. In any event, this blog post is about another master jazz vocalist, Oscar Brown Jr. Brown died a few years ago, and I am afraid may already be slipping into relative obscurity. Not for lack of talent; more likely for an abundance of political consciousness. Read the rest of this entry »
Power of Music
Author: Leigh Silbernagel
4 Aug 2008– The paradox which fascinates me the most is that of music. Music is the only thing worth fighting for, living for, and dying for because of the power it has over the human soul, but never has music started a war (with the exceptions of the social revolution of the 1960s and the pop-revolution of the 1980s which then spawned the Religious Right’s overzealous counterrevolution). To the cynics among is, music is constantly delegated to the sidelines, constantly minimized as nothing more than a catalyst for pretentious attention whores’ way of drawing attention to themselves and fulfilling their obsessive compulsive need to be different and express themselves *insert sarcasm here.* I pity those cynics, for not being able to be a part of something larger than themselves. Rather than write a post about a new band that I like, or a concert that has already passed, this week I pose that we reflect on the songs that have mattered most to us throughout our lives. For myself, it is Guns N Roses, Sweet Child o Mine, among others of course. Here’s why that song means so much to mean, and no, it is not because it is on Guitar Hero. Read the rest of this entry »
Musician Deserving Greater Recognition: George Adams
Author: Anthony Medici
There’s a small group of musicians who occupy that difficult space between journeyman and artist. They have all the tools and skills of the fully-fledged journeyman but also touches of true artistic power. George Adams is one of these musicians; a tenor saxophonist of admirable skill, insight and authority, with an ability to project a unique musical lexicon. It’s unfortunate he has been largely overlooked and his legacy obscured since his passing 15 years ago. These musings on George Adams were produced by a recent trip through the aisles of Princeton Record Exchange (a plug? yes, but they deserve it). Read the rest of this entry »
Summer Songs
Author: Dee
Honoring the Life of a Music Collector
Author: Brett
His goal was to have one copy of every album released, and he came closer to it than most of us could ever dream of. Today, we would like to honor the life of a man who’s commitment to music is itself undying, and whose generosity in recycling his used CDs and Records at Princeton Record Exchange will not be forgotten. Read the rest of this entry »