Wiz Khalifa reflects on his most iconic songs, including “Pittsburgh Sound,” “This Plane,” “We’re Done,” “Black and Yellow,” “Young, Wild, and Free,” “Payphone,” “We Dem Boyz,” “See You Again,” and “Something New.” Wiz Khalifa’s new album Rolling Papers 2 comes out July 13.
73 Questions With Saoirse Ronan
While packing for an Ireland-bound flight, Oscar-nominated actress Saoirse Ronan answers 73 questions from Vogue. Saoirse talks about her famously difficult first name, the causes closest to her heart, and best advice she’s ever received. Also, according to Saoirse, the Irish goodbye is NOT a thing…
That time the Royal Mail created awesome Pink Floyd stamps to mark 50 years of the band.
The Royal Mail released commemorative stamps in 1996 to mark 50 years of one of the greatest bands, Pink Floyd.
Did The Beatles Put A Message To Fans When They Played “I’m So Tired” Backwards?
At the very end of The Beatles’song I’m So Tired, what seems to be nonsensical mumbling can be heard in the background. The mumbling, if played backwards can be imagined as something along the lines of “Paul is a dead man. Miss him. Miss him. Miss him.” This only adds to the many supposed references to the “Paul is dead” conspiracy scattered throughout the White album. Mark Lewisohn has said that the nonsensical mumbling is actually Lennon muttering, “Monsieur, monsieur, how about another one?”
Photo Gallery: The Trews with Arrested Development at Buffalo’s Canalside
All photos by Mini’s Memories. You can contact her at minismemories@hotmail.com
Colin James Announces New Studio Album – Miles To Go – Out September 21
With his 19th album, Miles to Go (out Sept. 21, on Stony Plain Records in the USA and True North Records ROW), Colin James is getting back to the blues.
Miles to Go, Colin James’ ambitious sequel to the critically acclaimed Blue Highways, continues James’ story with a collection of carefully curated songs handpicked from some of the greatest blues artists.
In the months leading up to the recording, as James was reflecting on songs for the album he decided to reacquaint himself with a beautiful red Gibson ES-335. It was just like the guitar he played as a teenager but regretfully had to sell for rent money.
While James reconnected with this guitar, Miles to Go seemed to just flow onto the studio floor.
This album blends songs old and new, some of them completely reimagined and some almost perfect homages. But all are unified by a theme of undying love for the blues and the highest respect for the creators that led the way.
Known as one of Canada’s best blues musicians, it wasn’t until 2016’s Blue Highways that James found himself on a blues chart: the album spent 10 weeks at No. 1 on the Roots Music Report’s Blues Chart. It also landed him one of his biggest hits: “Riding in the Moonlight”. A Willie Dixon song that James once covered when busking in the streets and subways of Toronto and Montreal that landed on a Spotify playlist garnering millions of streams.
When James set out to make Blue Highways, an album of blues covers recorded with his touring band, he always intended it to be the first of two installments. Now we have Miles to Go, in which James records nine new covers of his favourite artists (Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Blind Willie Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Little Willie John, Robert Johnson, etc.) and adds two originals, “I Will Remain” and “40 Light Years.” “Blues has always been a pass-it-forward kind of thing,” says James. “It’s also surprisingly hard to write. You have to be careful how modern you get in your phrasing. Certain writers can write a song that sounds like it was done 40 years ago, but it’s deceptively hard.”
To be a blues musician is to always have a dialogue with the past. As with much blues music, it’s the performances on the original versions rather than the actual song that drew James to them. That said, what could he possibly bring to them in 2018? “You bring what you can,” he says. “If I feel like I’ve brought enough, then I put it out. I knocked a bunch of songs off this record when I realized that I can’t bring anything to them that isn’t there already. All my life I’ve tried to bring vitality to older songs. Hopefully my dedication to it is what floats it over the mark. That’s a subjective thing; some people will always prefer the original. However, there’s always a group of people coming up to see me after a show who might say, “Oh, I never would have heard ‘One More Mile’ by James Cotton—nothing in my life would have pointed me there.”
So much of Colin James’s career has pointed him to this moment: joyfully tangled up in the blues, which, as he notes, “is the only genre where you can maintain a young profile at the age of 53.”
07/13/18 Windsor, ON Bluesfest Windsor
07/14/18 Ottawa, ON Ottawa Bluesfest
08/17/18 Grande Prairie, AB Bear Creek Folk Music Festival
08/19/18 Salmon Arm, BC Salmon Arm Roots & Blues
08/25/18 London, ON London Bluesfest
09/08/18 Blue Mountain, ON Blue Mountain Village
Fab 5 Freddy on The Creation of Yo! MTV Raps
Fab 5 Freddy: It was a guy named Peter Dougherty, who sadly passed away a couple of years ago, he was a friend on the downtown scene in New York. He knew moves I was making with the movie Wild Style, like, just doing my art, making moves on the downtown scene; having linked Blondie to the culture and that turned into a No. 1 record [“Rapture”] for her. So when the music was selling crazy with no marketing and no promotion, Peter was a big fan and he got with another dude that worked at MTV, named Ted Demme, who was also a fan of the music. And they were basically like ‘we should do something’ and MTV finally gave them a shot and Peter said I got just the person, I know him. He explained all the stuff I did, so they said ‘give it a shot.’ And that guy was me and the rest, they say, is history. It was the highest-rated show the minute it went on the air and that started the ball rolling.People tuned in, they liked what they saw. At that point in time – I like to point out – rap radio, where you could hear rap records on the radio all day, every day was nowhere in existence, except maybe AM radio in California, a station called K-DAY. But in New York, the shows were on the weekends for a couple of hours, so it was a revelation and people tuned in. The concept of my show, from the beginning, was I didn’t wanna be cooped up in the MTV studios like the other VJ’s that were on the air cause I just thought it was corny how that looked and they was on for real long spectrum of times. And Peter said, ‘How would you wanna do it?’ I said ‘Man, well I would be more comfortable being on the street, going to the basement, whether artists is making music in Harlem or the Bronx.’ See where they live, let’s go to Compton, let’s go to Liberty City in Miami, that’s what I did. I went to the 5th Ward [in] Houston with the Geto Boys, so I traveled around and took it to the streets and that was the blueprint and the formula that actually worked and spread the culture around the world.
https://vimeo.com/35643246
Pianist Plays Classical Music For Blind Elephants At Thailand’s Sanctuary
Paul Barton, an artist and musician living in Thailand performs classical piano piece for a blind elephant named Lam Duan at Elephant World. Just watch how the soothing music comforts the sightless elephant, who swayed happily with the tempo of the music. I wonder if there are any Spotify playlists to play for other blind animals?
Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood Prime-Time Special Following Robert Kennedy’s Assassination
In response to Robert Kennedy’s assassination, Fred Rogers produced this primetime special to help parents with this difficult tragedy and to give them ways to talk with their children about tragic events in the news.
Bob Dylan’s Hofner Harmonica and Neckstand From 1961
Check out Bob Dylan’s Hohner “Marine Band” harmonica and metal neckstand, similar to the one used by Folk Rock paragon Bob Dylan at his very first paid gig, at Gerde’s Folk City on April 11, 1961, where he supported Blues legend John Lee Hooker.