For the latest edition of pianist Scott Bradlee’s “Postmodern Jukebox” music series, the Postmodern Jukebox band and recording artist Melinda Doolittle perform a Diana Ross-Inspired 1960s Motown soul rendition of Justin Bieber’s 2010 hit, Baby.
Rare Footage from Fleetwood Mac’s recording sessions of ‘Tusk’ in 1979
Tusk, the twelfth studio album by Fleetwood Mac was released as a celebrated double album on October 12, 1979. It is considered more experimental than their previous albums, partly a consequence of Lindsey Buckingham’s sparser songwriting arrangements and the influence of post-punk. The production costs were estimated to be over $1 million (equivalent to $3.37 million in 2017), making it the most expensive rock album recorded to that date.
Here’s some rare footage of the band showing their recording techniques of the masterpiece.
The Greatest Quote Ever About Aretha Franklin
“She can be hiding out in her house in Detroit for years… She can cancel half her gigs and infuriate every producer and promoter in the country. She can sing all kinds of jive-ass songs that are beneath her. She can go into her diva act and turn off the world. But on any given night, when that lady sits down at the piano and gets her body and soul all over some righteous song, she’ll scare the s*** out of you. And you’ll know—you’ll swear—that she’s still the best f***in’ singer this f***ed-up country has ever produced.”
– Billy Preston, on Aretha Franklin to the New Yorker
RAISE YOUR VOICE: A Collection Of Musical & Spoken-word Pieces By Students In Response To Parkland & Other School Shootings
The courage and moral clarity shown by the student survivors of the recent mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida struck an immediate emotional chord with the American public, bringing home the reality of gun violence. The situation is powerfully addressed in audio form in Raise Your Voice, a timely collection of musical and spoken-word pieces written and recorded by students from Parkland and other parts of the country in response to Parkland and other school shootings.
Slated for a timely release by the non-profit Little Village Foundation on October 5, 2018—one month prior to the all-important midterm elections—Raise Your Voice collects a cross-section of impassioned new pieces written and performed by students from across the United States. The material includes the widely heard original composition “Shine,” performed by Marjory Stoneman Douglas students Andrea Peña and Sawyer Garrity, who wrote the song with other members of their drama class. Other tracks for Raise Your Voice were recorded by Little Village Foundation founder Jim Pugh in various locations across the United States.
Pugh was initially inspired to assemble Raise Your Voice after being contacted by Bowling Green State University ethnomusicologist Katherine Meizel. Meizel had helped to assemble an NPR story documenting students’ musical responses in the wake of the Parkland shooting.
Similar to Little Village Foundation’s entire catalogue of releases that give all money raised through CD sales directly to the recording artists, Raise Your Voice‘s proceeds will be donated to a singular non-profit organization: Everytown. Everytown supports a movement of Americans working together to end gun violence and build safer communities.
As Pugh notes, “The courage of these students is amazing. Everyone participating on the album is incredibly talented and their hearts are filled with love for their fellow students. Raise Your Voice is a cross-section of America. It girls standing up in Morro Bay in California to a hip-hop class in New York City, but it’s very focused in its sense of purpose. Raise Your Voice features a wide range of students who want to share their music at such a critical moment in our country. Raise Your Voice gives them an opportunity to have their voices out there, and to encourage other students to rise up. These students just want to keep our schools safe, and we feel this music will have the potential to strike at what’s going on in America.”
Selected performers appearing on Raise Your Voice will perform on October 5 at San Francisco’s renowned Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival.
The gospel according to Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin will always be the Queen of Soul. In the 1960s songs like “Respect” became the symbol for political and social change. It’s likely the reason her music moved so many people wasn’t necessarily the lyrics, but the way she delivered them.
Aretha was raised in the church, and her life and music was rooted in gospel music. You can hear this so clearly in her live performances and covers, where every musical decision she made was in the moment.
Listen to any one of Aretha’s songs and you’ll understand the power of gospel music, but her live performance of “Dr. Feelgood” and her cover of “Son of a preacher man” are a great place to start.
Jess Glynne Shares Brand New Track And Video For ‘All I Am’
Grammy award winning Jess Glynne – singer, star and voice of the street – shares a brand-new song and accompanying music video for ‘All I Am’ off her upcoming sophomore album ‘Always In Between’ due for release on October 12.
‘All I Am’ is the brighter, bolder and even more brilliant follow up to the ‘I’ll Be There’ – the history-making first single from ‘Always In Between’ which flew straight to number one making Jess the only British female to have achieved a whopping seven #1 singles. In every way possible, ‘All I Am’ is loaded with pure joy, and from the second it begins it exudes the type of universal positivity that has made Jess so widely popular across the world. ‘All I Am’ is a proclamation of togetherness, a celebration of friendship and ultimately one of the most magnificent pop-songs you’ll hear this year.
‘Always In Between’ finds Jess on a breath-taking journey of self-acceptance. Jess’s debut album, ‘I Cry When I Laugh’ is one of the defining British pop records of its era. It debuted at number one in the UK, spawning 12 million worldwide singles sales, 39 weeks on the UK top 10, 2.5 billion Spotify streams, a sold-out UK arena tour, Brit, MTV: EMA, Ivor Novello, MOBO, Q and Glamour award nominations.
‘Always In Between’ captures the heart of what being a 28-year old woman in 2018 can feel like – trying to balance real life with everything that you want it to. If ‘I’ll Be There’ and ‘All I Am’ are anything to go by, there’s no doubt that ‘Always In Between’ will capture even more under its spell as Jess Glynne once again reaches out her hand, and offers love and friendship and unity to all that can hear her.
Canadian Classic Rockers The Kings Vlog Nashville With Producer Bob Ezrin
Adding to their fan loving tradition of vlogging their travels, The Kings’ newest video — a behind-the-scenes view of their recent trip to Nashville — reveals exciting new details on what’s coming up for the rockers.
The Kings are set to release “another rocking two-fer” — “Circle of Friends / Man That I Am” — this fall. Founding members Dave Diamond and Mister Zero recently headed to “Music City” to do the final mix on the single with Canadian producer Bob Ezrin, who’s known for his extensive work with Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel, Phish, Alice Cooper, KISS, Lou Reed, and Deep Purple, among more.
“Dave and I do these little travelogues all the time,” says Z, aka Mister Zero, “They’re fun for us.”
Hailing from Oakville, ON and Vancouver, BC, The Kings are best known for their 1980 smash, “This Beat Goes On / Switchin’ to Glide.” A huge success in all North American major radio markets, the Billboard Hot 100 hit recently surpassed 1.2 million streams on Spotify, and was dubbed by the Toronto Star as the ‘#1 almost official song of Toronto’. Its video is a digital masterpiece, featuring footage from more than 40 sources of live footage that took upwards of 140 hours to edit, it will soon pass 3 million views on YouTube.
The Kings are set to release a new single — another two-song segue called “Circle of Friends / Man That I Am” produced by The Kings and mixed by Bob Ezrin (Alice Cooper, Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel) — this fall.
The vlog starts off on a rainy, traffic-filled road funnelling into downtown Nashville, as the pair quip about being surrounded by other songwriters from across the continent. What follows are the duo’s time in “Music City”, including eats and beats.
Among the sights? The Kings head to 8th Ave’s Rumble Seat Music, snapping shots of four vintage Les Pauls valued at more than $1 million between them, before battling summer crowds at President Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage and its famous guitar-shaped driveway. There was a jam session at the Cambria Hotel with Joe Denim’s band, and a stop at the Ryman Auditorium.
“So here we are in our ongoing series of two Canadian boys exploring the fast food world of the U.S.,” they narrate as they pulled into Krystal, the second oldest fast food chain in America. Spoiler alert? The gents were not impressed, and recommended Hog Heaven Bar-B-Q or Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint instead.
“There’s such good food and music in Nashville, and that’s all fun,” says Z on the undisputed world class music mecca. “But we were there to get the mix done this trip, so that was the main focus.
“Working with Bob Ezrin is a serious situation. You better have your A-game ready because he is so professional.”
“When I first heard this thing,” Ezrin shares on hearing the song’s rough mix, “it was reminiscent of work that we’ve done together in the past, and (having) two songs combined again.
“I really liked it. I thought it was really cool, and I thought that it had so much of the same energy and the same spirit of the stuff that we had worked on together before, so I was well into helping (The Kings) to finish it.”
The 13+ hour road trip down was well worth the drive for The Kings to collaborate with Ezrin on “Circle of Friends / Man That I Am.” It’s a familiar and welcome dynamic; Ezrin also produced their first two Elektra Records albums.
“Very happy to be able to mix it down here, (and that they) came down to Nashville to do this thing at my studio,” Ezrin says. “(I) made it sound as good as I think I could. I hope it’s good enough… I think it’s slammin’…!”
Fans already agree and are chomping at the bit. “Can’t wait for the new single,” says Mike Cohn on the video’s comments. “Excited to hear that news,” agrees another, CD, below. “Waiting to hear and buy the new tune!”
The Eagles’ Greatest Hits 1971-1975 Is Now The Best-Selling Album Of All-Time
The Eagles can now add another accolade to their unparalleled resume – Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 is the best-selling album of all time, according to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which recently certified the album 38x Platinum, accounting for sales and streams of more than 38 million copies since its release in February of 1976. Later that same year, in December, the band followed up with Hotel California, which is now the third best-selling album of all time, certified 26x Platinum by the RIAA for sales and streams of more than 26 million copies.
“Congratulations to the Eagles, who now claim the jaw-dropping feat of writing and recording two of the top three albums in music history,” said Cary Sherman, Chairman and CEO, RIAA. “Both of these transcendent albums have impressively stood the test of time, only gaining more currency and popularity as the years have passed, much like the Eagles themselves. As we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the RIAA’s Gold & Platinum Program this year, it is only fitting that we can recognize the Eagles for their singular contribution to the history of American music.”
In today’s faddish, fractured, rock landscape, the Eagles retain an appeal that transcends both generation and genre, cementing the band’s role as enduring musical icons. As the best-selling American band of the ’70s, and one of the top-selling acts of all time, the Eagles have sold more than 150 million albums worldwide, scored six #1 albums and topped the singles charts five times. They have won six GRAMMY Awards, were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, in their first year of eligibility, and received the Kennedy Center Honors in 2016.
The Eagles – Don Henley, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit, with Deacon Frey and Vince Gill – are currently on tour through October 2018. The band has performed for more than half a million fans since the latest tour began on March 12.
Avicii’s ‘Wake Me up’ as a Heavy Metal Song
Oltedal, Norway-based multi-instrumentalist and singer Leo Moracchioli from Frog Leap Studios teamed up with vocalist musician Trey Xavier to give a head-banging, metal makeover to Avicii’s 2013 EDM hit, “Wake Me up.”
‘Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts’ with Steven Tyler
James Corden invites rock and roll legend Steven Tyler to play a game of Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts, in which the two pose very personal questions to each other and the choice is simple: answer honestly or eat what’s in front of you, which includes cow intestines and pig jelly.