Begin the Begin, out May 14, 2019, is the first biography of R.E.M. wholly researched and written since they disbanded in 2011, and written by Robert Dean Lurie. It offers by far the most detailed account of the group’s formative years–their early lives, their first encounters with one another, their legendary debut show, early tours in the back of a van, initial recordings, their shrewdly paced rise to fame.
The people and places of the American South are crucial to the R.E.M. story in ways much more complex and interesting than have previously been presented, claims Robert Dean Lurie; he explores the myriad ways in which the band’s adopted hometown of Athens, Georgia–and the South in general–shaped its members and the character of their art.
The South is much more than the background here; it plays a major role: the creative ferment that erupted in Athens and gripped many of its young inhabitants in the late 1970s and early ’80s drew on regional traditions of outsider art and general cultural out-thereness, and gave rise to a free-spirited music scene that produced the B-52’s and Pylon, as well as laying the ground for R.E.M.’s subsequent breakout success. Lurie has tracked down and interviewed numerous figures in the band’s history who were underrepresented in, or absent from, earlier biographies–they contribute previously undocumented stories and cast a fresh light on the familiar narrative.
This year is the 50th anniversary of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s iconic bed-in for peace at the Hilton Amsterdam. Despite being only 15 years old at the time, photographer Govert De Roos tells us how he was able to find a way into the room to capture some of the most recognizable images of that moment. Now, as he prepares to be part of a new exhibition celebrating this moment, Govert, alongside Hilton Amsterdam General Manager Roberto Payer, talks about how the message of peace and understanding continues to be relevant today and how the legacy of room 702 lives on.
The definition of what it means to be an independent musician is more complicated than one might think. It comes down to market share, ownership and so much more.
With over 20 million records sold worldwide, multi JUNO Award-winning Canadian singer/songwriter Gino Vannelli is back with album #20 — available April 5th, 2019.
46 years following his debut release, Wilderness Road is Vannelli’s first studio album featuring all new and original material in over ten years.
Best known for his reflective and soulful chart-toppers like “I Just Wanna Stop”, “Living Inside Myself”, “Black Cars”, and “Wild Horses” — or as ‘the Canadian singer songwriter with a lion’s mane’ — his rabid fanbase around the world are eager to hear what Vannelli is working on now.
Wilderness Road is at once unexpected yet familiar, evolutionary yet home-sewn; with Vannelli playing most of the instruments throughout, the living legend and musical mainstay has added a touch of Americana to earlier influences of rock, soul, jazz, and even classical sounds all recognizable on his previous 19 releases.
“Combined with a more narrative approach to the lyrics, Wilderness Road is altogether a musical endeavour set apart from all others I have undertaken in my career,” he shares. “It’s filled with a host of stories I have kept close to my heart for the last five years.”
The song “Yet Something Beautiful” is just one example; with lyrics of “life is cruel there ain’t no denyin’, at times too heavy a cross to bear, and yet something beautiful, when love is there,” Vannelli credits his inspiration as a chance observation of gentle caregiving towards a disabled partner.
“I was in the coffee shop above the studio,” he recalls, “and about to sit down for lunch when I noticed a woman pushing a man in a wheelchair.
“They had entered the small bistro and took a space close to me. The man appeared mostly paralyzed and unable to speak coherently, and at times shook violently before getting a word out.
“Other than a sense of sorrow, what struck me deeply was the woman’s sincerity in her eyes. I sat and marvelled at her kindness and grace. To my mind, there went a real-life unsung hero. I wrote the song almost immediately afterwards.”
Wilderness Road is available April 5th, 2019
Gino Vannelli Canadian Tour Dates
April 24th @ Bluma Appel Theatre, Toronto
April 26th @ Place des Arts, Montreal
April 27th @ Place des Arts, Montreal
Esteemed music producer and Prince collaborator Susan Rogers discusses with Vish Khanna her pioneering work as a music engineer/producer, her research in the field of music cognition and psychoacoustics, Prince vs. Michael Jackson, hitting it big with Barenaked Ladies, and much more. This episode was recorded before a live audience at the Dominion Chalmers Centre in Ottawa, Ontario during MEGAPHONO on Friday February 8, 2019.
Questlove talks about how he got involved with D’Angelo’s Voodoo record, the evolution of his drumming style, how he approaches DJ’ing, and tells the best Obama story ever.
Audible Inc., the world’s largest producer and provider of downloadable audiobooks and other spoken-word entertainment, today announced a production deal with Rolling Stone and its critically acclaimed journalists to create vivid audio-only portrayals of legendary musicians and larger-than-life icons. The Wild Heart of Stevie Nicks, a look at the life, music and legend of the Fleetwood Mac singer written and performed by best-selling author Rob Sheffield, will be released exclusively on Audible on April 4th. The production is available for preorder here.
“The epicenter of culture and technology is where Audible lives, so we’re honoured to work with Rolling Stone, a magazine that has served as a purveyor of pop culture and rich storytelling for decades, to produce next-level audio journalism,” said David Blum, Editor-in-Chief of Audible Originals.
“Audio journalism represents a great step forward in longform storytelling for Rolling Stone,” said Rolling Stone President and Chief Operating Officer Gus Wenner. “We couldn’t ask for a better partner in this space than Audible Originals.”
Audible teamed up with Rolling Stone in October 2018 to produce The Queen, an uncompromisingly honest Audible Original that honored the life and legacy of the incomparable Aretha Franklin, written by Rolling Stone journalist Mikal Gilmore and performed by Adenrele Ojo. The Queen immediately landed on Audible’s bestseller list, and remained there for numerous weeks.
Stevie Nicks helped make Fleetwood Mac one of the biggest bands on the planet before launching an extremely successful solo career. Next month, she’ll be inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist, becoming the first woman ever to enter the Rock Hall twice (she was first inducted with Fleetwood Mac in 1998). She’s earned 13 Grammy Nominations, including seven as a solo artist, and continues to tour arenas worldwide with Fleetwood Mac.
Additional Audible productions with Rolling Stone will be announced in the coming months.
Every breath you take, every move you make, every bond you break, every step you take these Pop! British rockers will be watching you. The Police are becoming the latest classic rockers to be immortalized in Funko’s Pop! Rocks series. The company announced that officially licensed figurines of the trio will arrive in June.
Lead vocalist and bass guitarist Sting, guitarist Andy Summers and percussionist Stewart Copeland are ready to fill your house with the sweet, sweet sounds of the Second British Invasion.
Filthy Friends have released the lyric video for their song “November Man”. The track appears on their second full-length album Emerald Valley, out May 3 via Kill Rock Stars.
The first releases from Filthy Friends, the scorchingly melodic rock group whose membership consists of some of the most original musical voices of the past three decades, came as a small, delightful shock to the system. Not only because of the names associated with the project, including Sleater-Kinney co-founder Corin Tucker, R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck and indie stalwarts Scott McCaughey and Kurt Bloch, but also because of how ably they were able to mesh their individual sounds into a crackling melodic whole on debut album Invitation.
Now, with their follow-up— Emerald Valley ,the Friends have proven their collective mettle, crafting a thematic suite of songs that finds the quintet digging deeper into their bag of musical tricks and giving Tucker room to rage about and mourn the fate of our planet and the people who inhabit it.
The core idea came from a demo Buck shared with Tucker for a grinding blues song that eventually turned into this new album’s title track. The minute she heard it, Tucker says, it sparked something within her: “I had this long poem growing in my brain,” she says. “It turned into a sort of manifesto about the kind of place we are at as a country but also as a region. Just taking stock of where we’re at and feeling like I can’t believe we let things get this bad.”
While Emerald Valley s tarts off with idyllic imagery (“Rolling fields, they speak your name/vibrant green is here again”), the album and its title track slowly reveal the ugly underneath, with human arrogance and hubris hurting the Earth and the people who take on “backbreaking work for little pay.”
From there, the Friends address growing concerns over oil production and distribution (“Pipeline”), gentrification and income inequality within the band’s hometown of Portland, Oregon (“One Flew East”), and taking on the voice of the desperate souls that are getting crushed under the wheels of capitalism (“Last Chance County”). The band paints these themes with many different shades of the rock palette, nestling a snapping punk tune between a bit of jangly pop and an almost-shoegaze ballad, with stops along the way for songs that burn as hot and move as slow as lava and tunes that stay steady and fast as a rocket launch.
Emerald Valley is also a testament the indefatigable spirit of the Filthy Friends themselves. Scott McCaughey bounced back from a stroke he suffered in late 2017, which curtailed the band’s tour plans and is playing with more fire than ever. As well, Corin Tucker and Peter Buck were able to devise some amazing work even as their creative energies were being pulled toward other projects like Arthur Buck and Sleater-Kinney. Too, the band was able to bring a new member into the fold with drummer Linda Pitmon coming on board to replace Bill Rieflin without losing an ounce of their power.
We could all take a lesson from Filthy Friends. As proven by Emerald Valley, when a group of like-minded people gather their individual strengths together and point them toward a singular goal, there’s no telling how powerful they can become and what an impact they can make on the world at large.
Filthy Friends Tour Dates
May 9 – Seattle, WA – Neumos
May 10 – Vancouver, BC – Rickshaw Theatre
May 11 – Portland, OR – Mississippi Studios
May 13 – San Francisco, CA – Swedish American Hall
May 14 – Los Angeles, CA – The Echo
May 17 – Athens, GA – 40 Watt Club
May 18 – Atlanta, GA – The Earl
May 19 – Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle
May 20 – Washington, DC – U Street Music Hall
May 21 – Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s
May 23 – Cambridge, MA – The Sinclair
May 24 – Brooklyn, NY – Music Hall of Williamsburg
YouTuber Cellofrag spent over 100 hours of editing and production work to create this wonderfully impressive cover of “Song of Durin” from Lord of the Rings.
