‘He didn’t sail across the Atlantic in an ocean liner or a yellow submarine. He didn’t come in on a third-class ticket looking for a job in Hell’s Kitchen. He didn’t climb up out of steerage with all his potatoes in a single suitcase. But John Lennon was an immigrant all the same.’
The track is an electronic ride through geology with a female whisper… it could be a dance number performed at festivals — although it is quite smooth and dreamy and too abstract to be totally dance oriented — but the DJ had another idea. He teamed up with Christopher Thockler for ‘Solid Gold’ a video featuring 60 rocks from 15 different countries around the world.
He may be a New York transplant, but his great sensibility fits very well with Los Angeles landscapes. With songs such as ‘Encino’, ‘Miracle Mile’, his work is obviously imbued with the city of angels, that he described in an interview as ‘a garden surrounded by mountains on one side and ocean on the other’… ‘a mind-numbing, flat suburban wasteland where the weather never changes and time stands still’.
‘We asked Edie Parker to designed a duo of hip-hop-themed clutches, just for us,’ says the description and of course they are sold for the modest sum of $1,695 each.
If there’s a Mount Rushmore of rock ’n’ roll, Keith’s face is surely on it. He has always represented the soul of rock music — for all of the light and dark shades that implies. To my relief, Keith Richards turned out to be a real man — full of humor, knowledge and wisdom. That’s the real Keith we’ve worked to capture in our film and I’m honored to bring it to a global audience via Netflix.’
People have gone overboard with song interpretations and I will start with the worst example of all, Charles Manson. The infamous rockstar wannabe was convinced that the Beatles’ White Album was as prophetic as the Bible, he would often quote ‘The Beatles and the Bible’ and considered the fab four as the ‘four angels’ as in Revelation 9
If you knew the dad I knew, you’d know his tender heart. He’d never want to hurt his fans, or family from the start.
If you knew my father,
you would know how hard he fought…
and the way it brought a smile to people light, medium and dark.
Named after the famous painting by Francis Bacon, their music was truly original, mixing dance elements with surprising krautrock textures and pop synth melodies, reinventing a genre, half funk disco, half new Neu.
During the whole show they seemed to send lasers in the sky with a supersonic intensity, Tunde Adembimpe’s magnetic presence, David Sitek’s guitar drone and a funk-punk restless sound.
‘Although people’s music choices fluctuates over time, we’ve discovered a person’s empathy levels and thinking style predicts what kind of music they like…. In fact, their cognitive style – whether they’re strong on empathy or strong on systems – can be a better predictor of what music they like than their personality.’
Philadelphia native Hemming celebrated the release of her self-titled debut album at Hotel Cafe on Friday night, and she gave a fierce performance with a set of intense and
‘I understand that the Plaintiff seeks the public release of death-scene photos of Kurt that show his entire lifeless body, as well as the damage done by the shotgun blast to his head’, reads her legal declaration. ‘I have never seen these graphic and disturbing images, nor do I ever want to. I cannot believe that there exists any genuine public interest which might be served by the public release of these images. Certainly, public disclosure would reopen all my old wounds, and cause me and my family permanent – indeed, endless, and needless – pain and suffering, and would be a gross violation of our privacy interests.’
The electronic duo is also a romantic duo, and their complicity was real live, her sensual lament, closer to sadness than simple melancholia, was haunting his desolated compositions, which were part electronic, part symphonic, sometimes even grand, with very emotional synthetic strings, an omnipresent bass-like sound and an occasional horn, sax or trumpet that he was playing with real instruments, recording loops and making them fade away with some computer manipulation.
But Taylor Swift has now apologized to Minaj, tweeting ‘I thought I was being called out. I missed the point, I misunderstood, then misspoke. I’m sorry, Nicki.’ Sorry for what? Wasn’t Minaj the attacker in the story?
Still, they put on a lively show with a lot of leg kicking by frontman and vocalist Chris Barron, who sure looked in excellent shape despite his gray hair and beard, looking like a more acrobatic version of Michael Stipe, thin and athletic, even making a cartwheel on stage!
‘When the ‘other’ girls drop a video that breaks records and impacts culture they get that nomination,’ tweeted Minaj. ‘If your video celebrates women with very slim bodies, you will be nominated for vid of the year.’
Owl certainly has a very hard rock sound sometimes anchored in metal, sometimes soaring some real poppiness, but what does it mean when you consider all the categories and nuances that exist among these genres? But may be Owl doesn’t want to belong to a specific genre, as their music seemed to push boundaries inside its own vision.
When it is there, it is an outburst of overwhelming feelings with a sort of Sufjan Stevens vibe – probably because of these trumpets – and the funny thing in all this? The last minute almost feels a poppy dance song. The tune is very Youth Lagoon but there are obvious changes and may be this brand new photo of his tells us a bit about this new sound?
July is Sonny Boy Thorn residency at the Satellite and Los Angelinos should check them out for free before the band is part of KROQ Weenie Roast lineup. You
‘Wayne Coyne’s work is among the most jubilant in our Big Hope Show,’ said AVAM founder Rebecca Hoffberger, who is curating the exhibition. ‘Surviving a violent, near-death experience awakened in him a joy and a tsunami of endless creativity rarely seen in anyone. His drawings remind me of those most beloved by Saint-Exupéry, his lyrics are poetry.’
Mj Poukkula, daughter of Tony Poukkula has chosen this moment to make public a few never-seen-before pictures of a very early Nirvana show, probably the first Nirvana show ever, according to Alternative Nation. She tweeted these pictures (above) with the comment ‘Pictures of my dad and Kurt Cobain playing together back in the day’.
‘Filmed in a single nine-minute take at the Chatham Dockyard in southeast England, the video follows Mr. West through an empty warehouse as he runs, crouches, dodges, raps, rants, sweats and pants, as if being pursued by the camera or the police or in pursuit himself, until he slumps against the wall to catch his breath.’
‘Yeah, man, fuck that. I mean, I really don’t ever want to cross the line into hating on stuff or judging other people. [But] fuck Lollapalooza. That isn’t rock and roll.
I’m not going to sit and pretend that we aren’t charging people money to get into our festival. But I don’t know, man. You can see it every year: Coachella, Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo — the lineups are the fucking same. It’s about numbers, it’s about bottom lines, it’s about measuring groups and cultures of people and the numbers that they represent on a bottom-line agenda. All the lineups are becoming more and more the same, the same fucking headliners.’
‘you dont scare me. im not scared of getting dropped or sued by u so what do u have? @wbr’, he continued and he also posted several times the cover art with: ‘they gonna try to sue me if i use the art i already had so heres my art what u gonna do with me now?? @wbr pic.twitter.com/ERNNCWRQtX’… ‘album is called ‘v’. fifth album. v. vv. vvv. a trilogy.’
A new exhibition has opened at Shepard Fairey’s Subliminal Projects, and it is this time centered around rap and hip hop, although the works of the different artists featured could
Another proof that speculations may be well founded is what the Beijing edition of Time Out just reported: ‘We hear musings about Maroon 5 being prevented from performing by our political friends up above. Meeting the Dalai Lama is all an artist needs to get a big X on their visa application.’
For his heavy metal/hard rock outfit, the very prolific Ty was on drums, in central position between Charles Moothart on guitar and Roland Cosio on bass. And as soon as they started it was a hell of a ride with more head banging above heavy metal or sludgy riffs, a myriad of garage rock chunks, wrapped in a punk fury and of course fuzzy distortion.
‘What is this c**t doing on the cover of Rolling Stone? Music has officially died. Who knew it would be Rolling Stone that murdered it? Simon Cowell and Louis Walsh can no longer be expected to take all the blame. Bob Dylan must be fucking horrified.
#BoycottRollingStone’
I have learnt about the album on Twitter but Jeff Tweedy announced it via Facebook and Instagram: ‘Why release an album this way and why make it free? Well, the biggest reason, and I’m not sure we even need any others, is that it felt like it would be fun. What’s more fun than a surprise?’
t’s not because of the money, although my share (like all the other artists) was dramatically reduced by bad deals made without my consent.
It’s about sound quality. I don’t need my music to be devalued by the worst quality in the history of broadcasting or any other form of distribution. I don’t feel right allowing this to be sold to my fans. It’s bad for my music.
The circumstances of the dramatic event are not entirely known, but Arthur was airlifted to the hospital yesterday evening after being found at about 6 pm, with life-threatening injuries, on a coastal path near the Ovingdean Gap. The death is not being treated as suspicious according to the Argus.
‘We are living in a wild bizarre time. Character assassination very real Dr. Cosby & ConFed flag down in same week. Status is currency to masses’ ‘They’re taking his name & statues down but is every situation giving his money back to him since its dirty money? #BillCosby’
‘Can’t Stand Losing You: Surviving The Police’ is based on his memoir, ‘One Train Later’ and follows his journey from his early days, when he played with The Animals in the 60’s, to his first encounter with drummer Stewart Copeland and bassist Sting. The Police became big, really big, I remember hearing their songs everywhere at the time, and I guess I could die happy if I never get to hear again ‘Roxanne’ and ‘Every Breath You take’, but I have nothing against Andy, he seemed like a great guy.
Chris Baio has described his forthcoming album as ‘Bowie and Ferry-influenced pop songs and dumbsmart arena techno’, and has declared that ‘It is a record that has reverberated through my mind for much of the last five years.’ However, after this show and song titles such as ‘Brainwash yyrr Face’, ‘I Was Born in a Marathon’, ‘All the Idiots’, some mystery remains, unless I find some answers in Don DeLillo’s 1982 novel ‘The Names’ which gave its title to his new record.
It is well documented that he started a rehab treatment at the Neurotransmitter Restoration Center in August 2002, and according to what we know (Ben Nugent’s bio and Liam Gowing’s Spin article) moved in with Jennifer Chiba just after his treatment, fall 2002. By then, he and Valerie had split up. However, it looks like Chiba was in his life before the rehab episode, when he was still dating Valerie. This part may bother a few people who are used to a clean-cut story, he dated Valerie Deerin, then Jennifer Chiba, but the reality is much foggier than this!
‘The shows we’ve been doing lately are our favorite shows that we’ve ever done. What seemed like a setback at the time has turned into this beautiful blessing in disguise, where this throne and these crutches and these audiences make us play longer and harder than we ever have. It’s this whole new energy in the show… I think the spontaneity of this situation we’re in right now just brings out a smile in everyone.’
Alone on stage with her acoustic guitar, or sometimes accompanied by a violin or a slide guitar, the strings were just reinforcing the melancholic beauty of her crystalline voice, bringing more emotions into her folksy-dreamy songs.
Her music was quite eclectic, when she started, I thought she would be another of these old school R&B-jazz songstress but she and her band brought a lot of diversity, as they got more bluesy than rhythm-y on a few songs, then brought more fire on a few others, even getting jazzy, poppy or all doo-wop-y on another one. Her delivery was bringing the right does of emotion, and everything about her looked contained and inspiring solemnity.
All I can say is that the crowd was constantly cheering, there was so much love for King on Friday night! When I turned around to see the audience, I could see every face with a large smile, it was as if King’s music was pure ecstasy bringing a magical dose of happiness, with another layer of sweet icing melting against people’s eardrums.
‘I think only one of his plays — ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ — was an original story. He would read these history stories and combine different plots. And in the case of this play, that whole speech by Enobarbus about ‘the poop was beaten gold’ — that description of Cleopatra that’s so beautiful — he really lifted a lot of that from a different source. I’ve read the original. So it’s inspiring to know that even Shakespeare needed to rely on the work of people before him. That gives me license to do the same.’
‘Joan doesn’t wanna talk about it at all. It wasn’t a total surprise that she didn’t’… ‘Joan very much believes in that rock myth Fowley’ added Cherkis. ‘In the L.A. Weekly she said, ‘These girls, they wanted to make him out to be this bad guy, but they’re just blaming him for their own failure.’ That was the gist. ‘Was there abuse? If there was, why did we take it then?’
The film is set in 1970’s London and is apparently not a biopic as it rather follows a young boy ‘whose life changes dramatically when his estranged mother (played by Natasha McElhone who played Karen in ‘Californication’) introduces him to the music of The Clash’, by sending him a cassette of “White Riot.”
He sings right in your face, looking at people right in the eyes, screaming sentences like ‘There’s no freedom of speech in the land of the sheep’, ‘How can I go to heaven if I’m living in hell’ in the song ‘Days of Rage’, which basically has to be one of the most anti-system, anti-capitalist songs I have heard for a long time.
‘It is totally possible to use human urine as a fertilizer instead of industrial fertilizer,’ declared researcher Heinonen-Tanski. Why not? Urine contains urea, a good source of nitrogen, plus potassium and phosphorus, all needed by plants and found in fertilizers. Plus it is always available, a typical human urinates about 500 liters per year, and about 200 of them must be produced during music festivals!
‘We are dumbfounded and perplexed at this rather silly decision. Perhaps something to do with the fact that it’s the Rolling Stones and controversy still seems to follow them everywhere,’ declared a spokesperson for the Rolling Stones.
But it was Beach Party’s residency, and although they rather installed a rock party than a beach party – and I am mostly talking about their stage dynamic and their classic rock moves here – they brought a lot of fun inside the Echoplex
I arrived almost two hours before the time — and that’s dedication — but the front of the building was already full of people, mostly ‘old’ people, but it is insane to qualify Beatles’ fans of old, these people have kept the fire in their belly, they are still excited to see one of the two Beatles left on earth, and they still believe that peace and love can change the world… it is so refreshing. Call them naïve, call them childish, I don’t care because I am one of them!
‘I thought that was very distasteful,’ she declared. ‘That’s why it’s important to me to not be a couch potato. I have to keep on doing something because the other side will take over – people who are really not understanding what beautiful things we have in this world and want to destroy it. And I’m not going to let them destroy John or the Beatles.’
‘Anyone seeking a ruling like this is always spurred by a subjective opinion, but that’s not enough to get a refund. What is significant is a generally agreed view that the concert was a failure, as it was in the Chuck Berry case.’
But you know how bands always say they have to tour to compensate the fact they are not selling albums anymore? As you can see on this graph, the compensation is barely achieved. If you compare bands’ album revenue in the 80’s, today’s successful bands can hardly compensate by touring.
