On September 12, 1962, John F. Kennedy gave one of the best speeches in recorded history. “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win”. 7 years after JFK’s historic speech, Apollo 11 landed on the moon on July 20, 1969. It has been nearly 50 years since that day, and it is an event still widely discussed. Mankind has not set foot on a new planet or moon since.
James Bay On How He Got Stranger Things’ Natalia Dyer To Play His Lover In “Wild Love” Video
James Bay stopped by Music Choice and explains how he got Stranger Things actress Natalia Dyer to play his love interested in his “Wild Love” music video and why he’s contradicted himself and created a track (and performs it) without a guitar.
Natalia Dyer in “Wild Love” Vid
Guitarless Track “Slide”
Ziggy Marley To Release Seventh Solo Studio Album “Rebellion Rises” May 18
Eight-time GRAMMY award winning musician and reggae icon Ziggy Marley will release his seventh full-length solo studio album, Rebellion Rises on May 18th through Tuff Gong Worldwide. Fully written, recorded and produced by Marley, this passionate and indelible new collection of music encourages people to stand together in activism through love.
“The rebellion begins in the mind, the melody, and the music,” assures Ziggy. “We are a conduit of that. The rebellion is consciousness. Now the consciousness starts spreading, we become aware and we rise.”
No track embodies this message better than the album’s title track and official first single “Rebellion Rises.” A manifesto with a chant-like chorus, the song emboldens its listeners to use the power we all have as instruments of positive change around the world.
“The better side of humanity, cannot let the side of humanity that push negativity and hatred be more willing,” Marley explained in a recent interview. “It cannot happen. It’s a battle of wills. We’ve got to have more will.”
Rebellion Rises marks Ziggy’s first studio release in two years, following 2016’s critically acclaimed self-titled project which took home the 2016 GRAMMY® award for Best Reggae Album and marked his fourth consecutive debut at #1 on the Billboard Top Reggae Album Chart. Pre-orders for Rebellion Rises are available at ziggymarley.com beginning today, and digital pre-orders will be available starting Friday, April 6th. All digital pre-orders will include an instant grat track of “Rebellion Rises,” which is also now available for streaming on Spotify, Pandora and Apple Music.
This June, Ziggy will embark on the first leg of his North American tour with stops in a number of west coast markets including Napa, CA, Seattle, WA, Portland, OR and San Francisco, CA. The tour will then make its way to Europe beginning June 29th where it opens in Legnano, Italy. Dates are below with more to be announced shortly. For additional concert and ticket purchase information, please visit ziggymarley.com.
UPCOMING NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES:
Dates: City: Venue:
4/28/18 San Bernardino, CA KayaFest (Performing w. The Marley Brothers)
6/8/18 Napa, CA Uptown Theater
6/10/18 Carmel, CA Sunset Center
6/12/18 Jacksonville, OR Britt Pavilion
6/13/18 Seattle, WA Seattle Zoo
6/14/18 Portland, OR Portland Zoo
6/16/18 Kamas, UT DeJoria Center
6/17/18 Winter Park, CO Hideaway Park
6/18/18 Aspen, CO Aspen
6/19/18 Albuquerque, NM Villa Hispana Outdoor Theater
6/20/18 Phoenix, AZ Van Buren Theater
6/22/18 Santa Ynez, CA Chumash
6/23/18 Sacramento, CA Ace of Spades
6/24/18 San Francisco, CA Sigmund Stern Grove
8/23/18 Bellvue, CO Mishawaka Amphitheatre
9/1/18 Vienna, VA Wolf Trap
UPCOMING EUROPEAN TOUR DATES:
Dates: City: Venue:
6/29/18 Legnano, Italy Rugby Sound Festival
6/30/18 Paris, France Elysée Montmartre
7/1/18 Brussels, Belgium Couleur Café Festival
7/2/18 Amsterdam, Holland Paradiso
7/5/18 Trenčín, Slovakia Pohoda Festival
7/7/18 Cologne, Germany Summerjam Festival
7/10/18 Vienna, Austria Sunsplash Festival Austria
7/12/18 Tolmin, Slovenia Overjam Int’l Reggae Festival
7/13/18 Novi Sad, Serbia Exit Festival
7/16/18 Karlsruhe, Germany ZELTIVAL Sommerfestival
7/17/18 Feldkirch, Austria Poolbar Festival
7/18/18 Luxembourg, Luxembourg Den Atelier
7/20/18 Wassertrüdingen, Germany Afrika & Karibik Festival
7/21/18 Ostrava, Czech Republic Colours Of Ostrava
7/23/18 Zürich, Switzerland Kaufleuten Zürich
7/25/18 Copenhagen, Denmark Store VEGA
7/26/18 Langesund, Norway Wrightgaarden
7/27/18 Stockholm, Sweden Gröna Lund
7/28/18 Östersund, Sweden Storsjöyran Festival
Artisan Loyalist Releases Refractor Single, New Album Out April 27
Edmonton synth-pop artist Artisan Loyalist is releasing his new single, “Refractor,” on April 6. The track, a slow dance of hazy synths, punchy drums and soft coos, is the first from his second album, Caustics, available April 27 on Sky Council/Sony.
Caustics, mastered by Joe Lambert (The National, Animal Collective, Daughter) feels like a luscious sunset of ‘80s inspired synth-pop. “Acres” raises the question of legacy, brims with a cascade of cymbals and mellow funk grooves while “Cautious Optimist,” a nod to artistic frustrations, shimmers with leisurely synths and guitars.
Artisan Loyalist is composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer Rob Batke. From 2006 to 2014, he was a member of Faunts, a seminal Canadian shoegaze band, featuring his brothers Tim and Steven Batke. Together, they released their breakthrough EP, M4 (2006) and an album, Feel.Love.Thinking.Of. (2009). Several of their songs appeared in TV shows and video games, including the Mass Effect franchise.
Caustics follows Artisan Loyalist’s full-length debut, Lonely Ghost (2015), and is the second in a trilogy of albums. “I think Caustics is more immediate and relevant because it came together a lot faster,” says Batke.
“A lot of the lyrics, too, I wrote very quickly and performed very quickly, so it didn’t feel so obvious or apparent to me what they were about. Instead of being reflective of the past, the lyrics revealed themselves more to me later.”
Check out the track below:
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Releasing Rare Sessions From Muddy Waters, Johnny Cash, And The Doors
Canadian specialist archive curator MajikBus Entertainment has unlocked the door to countless rare and unreleased archive treasures in the vaults of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).
Under License from CBC/Radio-Canada, the first three releases in the Transcription Records Series, featuring super-rare, long-unavailable albums produced for extremely limited release by the Canadian broadcaster at the turn of the 1970s is due to launch. The initial titles feature much sought-after LPs by Canadian notables Judy Singh, the Emile Normand Sextet and Perth County Conspiracy, now receiving their first-ever commercial release, and are available at the MajikBus store on PledgeMusic.
The coming months hold the promise not only of regular further albums in the Transcription Series, but numerous mouth-watering vinyl and box set releases anthologising the incredible depth of material from the CBC’s archives. Much of it is unseen and unheard in this format and will feature legendary figureheads of popular music such as Muddy Waters, Johnny Cash, The Doors, Jefferson Airplane and many more.
In the late 1960s, CBC augmented its commitment to Canadian artists by producing original albums by home-grown talent and distributing them on vinyl solely to its broadcast affiliates, both in Canada and across North America, in runs of just 250 copies. These discs have become holy-grail items for collectors and are now being remastered from the original tapes where available, or carefully restored from mint vinyl originals with the original artwork. They are pressed on 180-gram heavyweight black vinyl at the brand new, state-of-the-art record pressing plant Dublin Vinyl.
Each of the first three transcription albums was produced in the late 1960s and distributed to affiliates in 1970. Edmonton singer Judy Singh’s A Time For Love showcases her silky vocal style and powers of interpretation on originals by Burt Bacharach, Jimmy Webb and many others. Original copies have long changed hands for at least $500. The Emile Normand Sextet’s Emile Normand spotlights this master of vibes and marimba and has become a jazz milestone. Perth County Conspiracy’s self-titled debut marks the highly collectable first appearance of the psych-folk heroes, before their commercial emergence on Columbia Records, and has also fetched hundreds of dollars in its original format.
Says Singh of her album and its re-emergence: ”Recording this album with my brilliant, dear friend Tommy Banks, was an absolute highlight in my career. What a uniquely creative period in music history it was. I love seeing how vinyl is being resurrected with such passion. I’m grateful to Majikbus for including me in it all.”
Judy Singh’s A Time For Love, Emile Normand Sextet’s Emile Normand & the self-titled The Perth County Conspiracy were released globally on 23 March 2018, on 180gm, strictly limited edition, high quality vinyl with original artwork, digital download & on streaming services.
More details will be available soon of further albums in the Transcription Series and of MajikBus’ plans for deluxe releases from CBC’s archives, beginning with the breath taking and utterly historic set of recordings from 1966 featuring Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon and their fellow blues trailblazers, in session together for the first and only time.
MajikBus CEO Mark Holden notes that, “It’s a beautiful story about the vinyl, and CBC’s decision to support independent artists that weren’t getting the attention of the mainstream labels,” he says. “They did pick artists they thought were worthy of the investment and that had something to offer Canada and the world.”
Additionally, as MajikBus has licensed some of the corporation’s historic series of photographs that track the birth of rock ‘n’ roll, references great artists and moments in blues and jazz history, and progressed to the rock icons of the 1960s and 1970s. The astonishing array of artists featured includes: Pete Seeger; Duke Ellington; Nat ‘King’ Cole; Sammy Davis Jr.; Muddy Waters; Johnny Cash; Joni Mitchell; Bob Dylan; Joan Baez; The Rolling Stones; The Beatles; The Doors; Jefferson Airplane; and many more. MajikBus and publishing partner Off Beat Lounge will showcase these rare images in the exhibition ‘STILL – Music In Revolution,’ which starts its worldwide tour in the UK in June 2018.
Mr. Rogers and PBS
In this age of social media, cellular connectivity, WiFi and online games, it’s easy to forget how important The Tube was only a few short decades ago. But at that time it was TV that helped to form people’s worldview and open their eyes to different ideas and ways of life.
No one was more involved in television’s role in educating young children than Mr. Rogers. The gentle, soft-spoken gentleman taught children about life and helped them prepare to make their way in the world. What many people don’t know is that Fred Rogers was largely responsible for keeping public television on the air. Generations of Americans may not be aware that their ability to access information about a wide range of subjects was made available thanks to the soft-spoken, gentle manager of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.
Budget Cuts
Proposing budget cuts for public television is nothing new. For decades politicians have gone after “soft” targets to show that they’re tough and serious about reigning in the budget. By aiming for vulnerable targets which don’t get a lot of vocal support, the politicians can demonstrate that they’re “doing something” about the budget by “taking action.”
The Public Broadcasting System is one such target and as such, it’s particularly vulnerable to having its budget slashed whenever the whims of Congress deem it time to start saving. PBS’s contributions to society – the diversity in programming, the educational initiatives, the focus on strengthening identity, the focus on diversity – are lost in the shuffle in politicians’ drive to demonstrate that they are “accountable to the public.”
Such was the case in 1969 when the Nixon administration proposed that the PBS’s budget be slashed. Few people today, even those who benefit from the present day Public Broadcasting Service’s programs, are aware that Fred Rogers brought the sane even-handed, non-judgmental tone to Congress as he used to educate youngsters on his show to persuade the hardened politicians that the PBS was an important part of American society that deserved to enjoy a reasonable level of funding.
Nineteen Sixty Nine
On May 1, 1969, Fred Rogers testified in front of the Senate Subcommittee on Communication. His talk centered on explaining exactly what his job entailed and his hope was that the senators, including the chairman Senator John O. Pastore, a gruff, no-nonsense politician, would understand the importance of providing the nation’s children with social and emotional education – the kind of programming that only public television was providing.
In his talk Rogers didn’t relate to the intricacies of the budget. Instead, he talked about the fact that his program, and others like it, were geared to help children learn to deal with their problems in a healthy manner He strove, Rogers explained, to instill a sense of confidence in the kids who watched him. He used simple words and sentences to get his point across.
“This is what I give. I give an expression of care every day to each child, to help him realize that he is unique. I end the program by saying, “You’ve made this day a special day, by just your being you. There’s no person in the whole world like you, and I like you, just the way you are.” And I feel that if we in public television can only make it clear that feelings are mentionable and manageable, we will have done a great service for mental health. I think that it’s much more dramatic that two men could be working out their feelings of anger ― much more dramatic than showing something of gunfire.”
Demonstration.
Rogers illustrated his words.
“Could I tell you the words of one of the songs, which I feel is very important?” he asked. “This has to do with that good feeling of control which I feel that children need to know is there. And it starts out, ‘What do you do with the mad that you feel?’”
“What do you do with the mad that you feel? When you feel so mad you could bite. When the whole wide world seems oh so wrong, and nothing you do seems very right. What do you do? Do you punch a bag? Do you pound some clay or some dough? Do you round up friends for a game of tag or see how fast you go? It’s great to be able to stop when you’ve planned the thing that’s wrong. And be able to do something else instead ― and think this song ―
“I can stop when I want to. Can stop when I wish. Can stop, stop, stop anytime … And what a good feeling to feel like this! And know that the feeling is really mine. Know that there’s something deep inside that helps us become what we can. For a girl can be someday a lady, and a boy can be someday a man.”
Rogers concluded by saying “I feel that if we in public television can only make it clear that feelings are mentionable and manageable, we will have done a great service for mental health.“
Pastore, a veteran DC senator with over 20 years of experience, was touched by what Rogers said. “I’m supposed to be a pretty tough guy, and this is the first time I’ve had goose bumps for the last two days. Looks like you just earned the $20 million.”
In an era in which stardom seems to mean gaining publicity through stunts and unfortunate behavior, Fred Rogers, the kindly neighbor whose optimism shone through to some of the country’s most hardened politicians, showed himself to be a real star. His legacy lives on in the form of strong PBS educational programming and a nation that continues to support federal funding for public television.
JAY-Z gives David Letterman a lesson on what makes a good rapper
JAY-Z gives David Letterman a lesson on what makes a good rapper in this clip from My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman, premiering April 6th on Netflix.
I Love The 90’s Tour Featuring Vanilla Ice, Salt-N-Pepa, Montell Jordan Comes To Ontario
Kicking off in 2016 and quickly racking up hundreds of shows across North America, UK, Australia and New Zealand, the hugely successful I LOVE THE 90’s TOUR will continue its reign in 2018 with new stops across the United States and Canada including Burl’s Creek Event Grounds on Saturday, August 18, 2018. You can get tickets here. In just two years, the tour has become one of the most sought after live events, selling out arenas worldwide with its rotating lineup of the 90’s’ most iconic acts. This year promises fans the same unbelievable live experience with a lineup at Burl’s Creek that includes crowd favourites Vanilla Ice, Salt-N-Pepa, Montell Jordan, Rob Base, Young MC, and Black Sheep.
“Burl’s Creek Event Grounds is a stunning first-class venue; we’re looking forward to programming more great summer content for the residents of Simcoe County and Muskoka in their own backyard. The artists on the ‘I Love the 90’s Tour’ featuring Salt-N-Pepa and Vanilla Ice are party icons from a time when massive radio hits and music videos were king, before iTunes, smart phones, and Facebook – you can’t download nostalgia!” says Lisa Zechmeister, Director of Booking and Development at Republic Live. Republic Live operates Burl’s Creek Event Grounds.
The I Love the 90’s Tour went international in 2017, inviting fans from Australia, New Zealand and UK to join the nostalgia-filled party. With live sets from Vanilla Ice, Salt-N-Pepa, Color Me Badd, Coolio, Tone Loc and Young MC, the international tour started 2018 with the biggest party on dance floors across the world. November’s AUS/NZ tour announcement of the party set off a frenzy when thousands upon thousands of fans took to the web to buy tickets, shutting down ticketing sites and selling more than 20,000 tickets in just 48 hours.
Siri Answers,”What Is 10 Trillion Raised To The Power 10?” And Then It’s Put To Music
In late January 2015, Indian musicians Samarth Swarup and Asa Singh accompanied the Apple iOS Siri as she answered the question “What is 10 trillion raised to the power 10?” This is a hit!
I being a music producer [musician] was quite attracted to the response of Siri on this question. So I clubbed my friend’s beatboxing and my guitar along with it and made this crazy video.
Q&A With Matt Johnson of The The: “The loyalty of many members of my audience has been a pleasant surprise”
The stage is set for the return of THE THE, one of the most intriguing bands ever to emerge from England, armed with such classic songs as “This Is The Day,” “Uncertain Smile,” “Heartland,” “Love Is Stronger Than Death,” “Armageddon Days (Are Here Again)” and “Dogs of Lust,” from albums released between the early 1980’s to 2000.
Helmed by singer and songwriter Matt Johnson, THE THE have announced their first live shows in 16 years. The post-punk iconoclasts will first tour the UK and Europe starting in late May, with many shows already sold out including London’s Royal Albert Hall and Brixton Academy, before launching their North American tour in September. Tickets for the North American tour go on sale Friday, April 6 at 12 noon local time. *Read an interview with Johnson below.
Kicking off September 14 in Boston at the Orpheum Theatre, THE THE’s eight-date North American headlining tour will include two stops in the New York area (September 16 at Brooklyn Steel and September 17 at the Beacon Theatre) and then make its way to Toronto, Detroit and Chicago before reaching Los Angeles September 24 to perform at the Ford Theatre and wrapping September 27 in San Francisco. These dates will mark the band’s first North American concerts in 18 years. See below for all dates and details.
As a singer and songwriter, Johnson has been silent for many years, with the last THE THE album, 2000’s NakedSelf, capping off a remarkable run of records–from his solo debut Burning Blue Soul (1981), through THE THE’s Soul Mining (1983), Infected (1986), Mind Bomb (1989) and Dusk (1993)–which earned him an enduring reputation as a brave and uncompromising artist dealing with both the dark matters of the heart and prescient sociopolitical commentary.
In 2017, THE THE released a new single, ”We Can’t Stop What’s Coming,” as part of 2017’s Record Store Day, their first new song in 15 years, with Matt Johnson joined by former THE THE members, Zeke Manyika on percussion, James Eller on bass and Johnny Marr on guitar. The track was taken from The Inertia Variations, an 84-minute documentary film, which premiered at the 2017 Edinburgh International Film Festival, and forms part of a wider multimedia project inspired by the poem of the same name by John Tottenham. Additionally in October 2017, THE THE released the Radio Cineola: Trilogy box set.
The first biography of THE THE, “Long Shadows, High Hopes,” written by Neil Fraser and fully authorized by Johnson, will be published by Omnibus Press on June 7, 2018.
Q&A WITH MATT JOHNSON
Beginning in late May, THE THE are returning with a run of UK and European comeback shows, including already sold-out shows at London’s Royal Albert Hall, Brixton Academy and Troxy, among others. These are to be followed by a tour of North America in September. Are these your first shows in 16 years and what inspired the return?
Apart from a one-off performance as a guest of David Bowie at his ‘Meltdown’ festival at London’s Royal Festival Hall in 2002 these will be the first THE THE concerts since 2000, which is nearly two decades. My decision to come out of ‘retirement’ was triggered by personal events in my life. My older brother and long time collaborator Andy “Dog” Johnson, who created many of the distinctive THE THE record sleeves over the years, passed away in January 2016. His death came in the middle of the filming of The Inertia Variations, a Swedish feature length documentary that was being made about me (view trailer here). Andrew’s illness and subsequent death became a central part of the film and inspired me to write my first new song in many years, “We Can’t Stop What’s Coming.” The whole situation caused me to reflect deeply about what I want to do with my life and so I decided to put a toe back in the water to feel the temperature.
THE THE last album’s was in 2000, with the single, “We Can’t Stop What’s Coming,” your first new song in 15 years, released in 2017 on Record Store Day UK. Can you talk about the buzz the song (on which you were joined by former THE THE members Zeke Manyika on percussion, James Eller on bass and Johnny Marr on guitar) created and how it set the stage for the return to live concerts?
The director of The Inertia Variations, Johanna St Michaels, was trying to persuade me to write a new song for the documentary from the moment we began filming it. As the film is based around Radio Cineola, a 12 hour live radio broadcast I was hosting from my London studios, she felt it would make a great climax to the film if I was to perform a new song during a live broadcast. I had resisted this idea but in the end personal events overtook the documentary and after Andy’s illness and subsequent death I felt compelled to write a song for him, just as I had written “Love Is Stronger Than Death” for my younger brother Eugene when he passed away in 1989. My former bandmates, James Eller, Johnny Marr and Zeke Manyika were all very fond of Andrew and came together with me to pay tribute to him. ‘”We Can’t Stop What’s Coming” created such a buzz when it was released on Record Store Day ‘17 that it actually crashed our website for many hours as we were unable to keep up with demand.
The Inertia Variations premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in the summer of 2017 and forms part of a wider multimedia project inspired by the poem of the same name by John Tottenham. There’s also the Radio Cineola: Trilogy box set you released, and THE THE’s Infected: The Movie. Can you talk about these projects?
This is one of the most ambitious projects I’ve ever attempted as it encompasses music, spoken word and poetry, politics, sculpture, photography and film. It involved many collaborators across the UK, Europe and the US. The project was initially inspired by the poem The Inertia Variations, which was written by John Tottenham, an Englishman living in Los Angeles. John and his poem were introduced to me by our mutual friend, the Brooklyn-based composer JG Thirlwell. It was this poem that inspired the making of the feature length documentary, with which it shares its name. But the project just kept growing and merged with Radio Cineola, my conceptual shortwave radio station that is broadcast from my London studios. There were also a couple of art installations, Roda Sten Konsthall in Goteborg and Summerhall in Edinburgh, which featured the 9-meter-tall Radio Cineola Tower we commissioned for the project. Lastly, there was the release of the Radio Cineola: Trilogy boxset on vinyl, CD and download and which featured exclusive photography and narration from the project.
Are you able to reveal which musicians will join you on the North American tour?
All I can say for now is that I have chosen one musician from each of the three band line-ups from my three world tours. Plus, there will be one new face. Stay tuned!
Since you’re known as a unique artist who tackles complex emotions and sociopolitical topics, can you talk about your current mindset and the state of the world?
Well, my views tend to be out of step with the mainstream narrative but I’ve often had people tell me that when they look back at things I said or wrote decades ago they seem to make more sense now. So, all I will say is that I think we’re living through very dangerous times and that the governments and intelligence services of the West are pulling us into perilous waters with their McCarthy-era hysteria and witch hunts. The prevailing mood appears to be argument by assertion where someone continually argues a point by merely asserting that it is true, regardless of contradiction. As Goebbels said, “If you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes the truth.” When you start to look into these allegations the truth is often not what is being portrayed. It reminds me of the continual lies that were spread by our own governments and intelligence services in the UK and US that dragged us into the disastrous Iraq war and its aftermath. It seems few lessons have been learnt by the general public and I find it dispiriting how many people are content to be passively spoon fed information by their government, the corporate media and the intelligence services without doing their own research and making up their own minds.
Can you talk about which songs from THE THE’s albums—from your debut Burning Blue Soul (1981), through Soul Mining (’83), Infected (’86), Mind Bomb (’89) and Dusk (1993)—will be in the set list?
Obviously I’m not going to give away the set list, but songs from every album of THE THE’s catalogue will be represented.
Are you planning to record a new album?
Yes, I’m feeling inspired and have already started writing it. I’m hoping to begin recording sessions later this year but this all depends on our touring schedule.
What has surprised you most in your career?
The loyalty of many members of my audience has been a pleasant surprise.
Can you describe your best gig ever—and your worst one?
Not really (maybe it’s age?), but all the hundreds of shows I’ve performed have tended to merge into one giant concert in my mind, albeit one with its own highs, lows and maybes.
Have you had a Spinal Tap moment in your career? Care to share it?
Not yet, but I’m sure there’s always time for that!