Guitarist Joe Bonamassa takes on cellist Tina Guo in an epic speed battle for the applause of the audience. They begin with Flight of the Bumblebee and then into Woke Up Dreaming. If you dig this, check out Joe’s Live at Carnegie Hall – An Acoustic Evening.
Slowdive: NPR Music Field Recordings
Before a month-and-change ago, Slowdive hadn’t released an album in 22 years. So you’d be forgiven for watching the band perform “Sugar For The Pill” and struggling to pin down what era you’re in — especially since NPR Music plopped the group in a playfully retro Brooklyn shuffleboard parlor for the occasion.
In the early ’90s, Slowdive dressed up shoegaze’s hazy drift with jolts of energy and a chiming dream-pop shimmer. The band lasted only three albums before splitting up in 1995, at which point members Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell formed the more countrified Mojave 3. Now, after reuniting in 2014, it’s back with a self-titled album that picks up where it left off — but, while it conjures many signifiers of ’90s college radio, the band’s return album freshens the project up, too, with bright, impeccable songcraft. A patient mid-tempo gem that’s as hooky as it is hypnotic, “Sugar For The Pill” is a particular highlight, so it’s a joy to watch the reconstituted band trot it out for this Field Recording, filmed at Royal Palms Shuffleboard in Brooklyn.
Billy Joel on His Advice To Younger Musicians
What advice do you give to younger musicians?
Depends on who it is. Deciding to become a musician for life is a big decision, and it’s scary because there’s no safety net. A lot your friends will say you’re crazy; you’re never gonna make it. Your parents worry about how you’re gonna make a living. Most musicians that play in clubs or restaurants have to have another job.
Some subway musicians are great.
It’s tough. Forget about being a star or a recording artist: If you can pay your rent and make enough money to buy food and necessities of life as a musician, that’s already a success. I tell acts who are opening up for us, “Just be yourself.” We are all a culmination of all our influences. Nobody grows up in a test tube. A lot of times you get accused of being a derivative. Well, of course you sound like people you admire! Eventually you practice it in your own way and it becomes original.
I have another theory. Don’t be afraid of mistakes, because the only original thing we ever do is make mistakes. You can be taught how to do something perfectly right, but only you can screw it up in your own inimitable way. We’ve left mistakes in recordings, thinking, “Wow, nobody would have thought of that!”
Michelle Branch Talks About Why She Was In Musical Limbo For So Long
Michelle Branch is a Grammy-winning singer/songwriter. She put two platinum albums when she was still a teenager. Those records were huge hits, and so her sound on those records defined her as an artist—for better or worse. Over a decade later, and after a long stretch, in 2017, Michelle put out her third album, Hopeless Romantic. In this episode of Song Exploder, Michelle talks about why she was in musical limbo for so long, as she takes apart her song “Best You Ever.”
Orchestra Performs Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
Rundfunk-Tanzorchester Ehrenfeld performs a Daft Punk cover of Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.
Plizzanet Earth with Snoop Dogg: Iguana vs. Snakes
Jimmy Kimmel teamed up with his friend Snoop Dogg for what has become one of the most beloved nature programs on this or any planet. And with that said, here is a special all-reptile edition of #PlizzanetEarth.
Wayne Kramer Has Uploaded Rare MC5 Concert Footage To YouTube
Wayne Kramer of the dangerous rock ‘n’ roll legends the Motor City 5 (or the MC5 if you’re short for time), has personally uploaded remastered clips of live performances from 1968 (at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago), 1970 (the Tartar Field show), and 1972 (at the Gibus Clubin Paris).
DASPO-CONUS Democratic National Convention footage:
Tartar Field, Detroit, July 19, 1970:
Gibus Club, Paris 1972:
The Original Batman Theme Song Done Metal
Guitarist 331Erock pays tribute to Adam West and the character he defined for him, and millions of others, through this metal version of Neal Hefti’s 1966 Batman theme song.
Jimmy Fallon, Kids from SeriousFun, and Buckingham & McVie Sing “Don’t Stop”
Jimmy Fallon is joined by Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham and Christine McVie, The Roots, and kids from SeriousFun (Paul Newman’s camp for kids with serious illnesses) to sing “Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow.”
https://youtu.be/7rqLQ05AVNo
Toronto’s Coal Mine Theatre Presents Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours Created By Ted Dykstra
Toronto’s Coal Mine Theatre is proud to present the first ever Coal Mine Concert, RUMOURS by Fleetwood Mac, February 4-25, 2018 at the intimate Coal Mine Theatre.
Released in 1977, Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours is the seventh best-selling album of all time (the third best-selling 70s album), moving 800,000 copies per week at its height and selling more than 40 million copies to date. With the arrival of Rumours, Fleetwood Mac underwent “that alchemic transmigration from lead to gold” according to Rolling Stone’s five-star review of the record. Its success made Fleetwood Mac a cultural phenomenon and set a template for pop music forever.
Harkening back to the days when legendary clubs like the El Mocambo, Silver Dollar Room and Horseshoe Tavern were packing them in–the air stale with cigarette smoke and spilled beer–the Coal Mine Theatre is the perfect place to recreate that immersive club feel and present a straight up rock ‘n roll concert of the entire album.
“Two years-ago I was driving around town and listening to Rumours for the first time in a long time, but I still knew every note. At the same time, it was like I had never heard it before. The complexity, the simplicity, the musicianship; surely one of the finest records ever made.” Today, Ted Dykstra, Coal Mine Co-Chief Engineer and RUMOURS creative guide, has assembled a killer group to play the album live–joyfully, respectfully, authentically–up close and personal at the Coal Mine Theatre.
Ominously romantic while dealing with the break-up of the quintet’s two couples, Rumours, which appears on the surface to be an album of love songs with heavenly harmonies, is a contradiction between its cheerful surface and its anguished heart. This is not a re-interpretation of the record, nor a jukebox musical, this is Rumours as you know and love it!
Lead guitarist and vocalist, Mike Borkosky is a musician who has played with Alannah Myles, Carole Pope, Sass Jordan, Lee Aaron, Canadian Idol; a producer who has worked with illScarlett, Low Level Flight, Rex Goudie, Melanie Doane, Sabrina Whyatt, Creepy Crawlies; and lead vocalist for the band The Test Icicles.
Toronto vocalist and songwriter, SATE combines blistering hard rock and gritty funk with “a tornado of a stage presence,” (NOW). Her full-length debut album, RedBlack&Blue, was declared one of 2016’s most anticipated releases by the Globe and Mail. Daughter of Salome Bey, and formerly known as Saidah Baba Talibah, SATE understands desire and is prepared to sate it!
Andrea Ramolo is a multiple Canadian Folk Music Award nominee, and one-half of the acclaimed folk/pop duo Scarlett Jane. Her third solo album NUDA, produced by Michael Timmins (Cowboy Junkies) was released in 2017 and included in that year’s Polaris Prize Longer List. Andrea has performed alongside such Canadian artists as Gordon Lightfoot, Ron Sexsmith, Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, Lynn Miles and Adam Cohen.
Multi-genre bassist, electric and upright, Jen Benton has performed nationally and abroad with Alex Lifeson, Andy Kim, Ron Sexsmith, Colin James, Dru, Kim Mitchell, Sam Roberts, Serena Ryder, august, Lily Frost, Lights, Sarah Slean, The Cliks, Luke Doucet, Divine Brown, Mark Holmes, and Lorraine Segato to name a few. She can also play a mean trumpet!
Since graduating as a percussion major from the Humber College Contemporary Music program, Steven Foster has toured the world as a drummer, guitarist, singer and songwriter in bands such as Doldrums, Moon King, Jaron Freeman-Fox and the Opposite of Everything, Snowblink and others. He also has his own project, Omhouse; has composed music for a chamber ensemble; and has musical directed for theatre.
Derek Giberson, on keys, has been playing professionally for nearly 20 years; as bandleader of the nine-piece powerhouse Professors Of Funk and member of the Julian Taylor Band, and with musicians Sass Jordan, Shakura S’aida, Chris Caddell, Emmanuel Jal, Tyler Shaw, Carvin Winans and Ivana Santilli.
Sound designer and live sound engineer, Roger Psutka has worked with a diverse range of acts across the music industry including Our Lady Peace, Chantel Kreviazuk, Blue Man Group, Dean Brody, George Canyon, Remy Shand, Simple Plan, Sheryl Crow, and many more.
Coal Mine Theatre presents fearlessly challenging plays, produced, directed, designed and performed at the highest possible level. With less than 100 seats available per performance, Coal Mine is inspired by the intimacy and excitement of the off-off-Broadway experience. The Coal Mine’s fourth season under Chief Engineers Diana Bentley and Ted Dykstra has presented The Aliens by Annie Baker and Poison by Lot Vekemans; and continues with Rumours by Fleetwood Mac: A COAL MINE CONCERT; and Category E by Belinda Cornish.
February 4–25, 2018
Opening Night: Wednesday, February 7, 2018
Coal Mine Theatre, 1454 Danforth Avenue, Toronto
Tuesday-Sunday @ 7:30 • Sunday Matinee @ 2pm
Sunday Performances Added at 7:30pm on February 11, 18 & 25
(Sunday, February 4th Preview @ 7:30pm only)
All Tickets $42.50 + hst (previews $25 + hst)
brownpapertickets.com/TheCoalMine