In the first of this illuminating five-part history of the great Twin Cities punks Husker Du, we meet the band before they became a band, following Grant Hart and Greg Norton as they grow up in St. Paul, and then encounter Bob Mould, a new kid at Macalester College with a Flying V guitar and a love for punk rock equal to theirs.
Unseen Audition Tapes For The Kids Of Stranger Things
Everything is out in the open during the audition tapes of the kids from the Netflix show, Stranger Things.
Thelonious Monk’s ‘The Complete Prestige 10-Inch LP Collection’ out December 15
Craft Recordings, the Catalog Division of Concord Music, is proud to announce the release of Thelonious Monk’s The Complete Prestige 10-Inch LP Collection. Due out December 15th, the limited-edition box set includes all five of the 10″ vinyl LPs which the pianist recorded for the jazz label, spanning 1952 to 1954. Each album has been faithfully reproduced – from the jacket design to the LP labels – while the audio has been carefully restored and remastered by Joe Tarantino from the original analog tapes, with lacquer cutting by George Horn and Anne-Marie Seunram at Fantasy Studios. Rounding out the collection is a booklet with new liner notes by Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original. The Complete Prestige 10-Inch LP Collection will also be released in high-res and standard audio formats across all streaming and digital platforms.
Thelonious Sphere Monk (1917-1982), who would have turned 100 this year, remains one of the most highly regarded jazz artists in history, known for his unique style on and off the piano. Monk was a rule-breaker, pushing the limits of his genre, with his dissonant chords, unconventional melodies and progressive rhythms. Initially dismissed an eccentric by the musical elite, Monk stood his ground, and came to be celebrated for his complexities; considered by many to be a genius.
However, in the early ’50s, the artist was still struggling to find critical and commercial acceptance. In his liner notes, Robin D. G. Kelley refers to this era as the “golden years in terms of [Monk’s] creative output” but, he adds, “these were also dark times.” Following an unjust run-in with the law, the jazz musician’s cabaret card was revoked, preventing him from performing at New York clubs, and restricting his income. The artist’s fortune began to change, though, in 1952, when Prestige Records’ founder Bob Weinstock offered Monk a recording contract. Weeks later, the Thelonious Monk Trio ̶ consisting of Art Blakey (as well as Max Roach on select tracks) on drums and Gary Mapp on bass, went to work in the studio, with a young Ira Gitler as producer. The resulting 10-inch LP release was Thelonious. By the fall of 1953, Monk returned to the studio, this time with a quintet, for Thelonious Monk Quintet Blows For LP, featuring Sonny Rollins on tenor saxophone. Thelonious Monk Quintetand Thelonious Plays followed in 1954. In the final 10-inch LP in this collection, recorded in October of 1954, Monk was actually a last-minute replacement for Elmo Hope at a Sonny Rollins session. But he ultimately received co-billing on the resultant 10″ LP release, Sonny Rollins and Thelonious Monk. Also produced by Gitler, the LP includes an 11-minute jam of Vincent Youmans’ “More Than You Know” which, as Kelley puts it, became “the session’s masterpiece, a sublime dialogue between two great masters of modern music.”
These early albums in The Complete Prestige 10-Inch LP Collection offer an intriguing look into this distinctive and resolute artist before he found full acclaim and acceptance, and feature an impressive collective personnel that includes some of jazz’s finest. “Listening to these tracks more than sixty years after they were recorded, it’s stunning how compelling, modern and original Monk’s music still sounds, even through the filter of 21st-century ears,” observes the collection’s producer, Nick Phillips. “That’s the mark of a true musical genius, indeed.”
TRACK LISTING
Disc 1:
Thelonious Monk Trio: Thelonious
Side A
1. Little Rootie Tootie
2. Sweet And Lovely
3. Bye-Ya
4. Monk’s Dream
Side B
1. Trinkle, Tinkle
2. These Foolish Things
3. Bemsha Swing
4. Reflections
Personnel:
Thelonious Monk – piano
Gary Mapp – bass
Art Blakey – drums (A1 through A4)
Max Roach – drums (B1 through B4)
Recorded at Van Gelder Studio in Hackensack, NJ; October 15, 1952 (A1 to A4) and December 18, 1952 (B1 to B4).
Disc 2:
Thelonious Monk Quintet Blows For LP
Featuring Sonny Rollins
Side A
1. Let’s Call This
2. Think Of One
Side B
1. Friday The Thirteenth
Personnel:
Thelonious Monk – piano
Sonny Rollins – tenor saxophone
Julius Watkins – French horn
Percy Heath – bass
Willie Jones – drums
Recorded at WOR Studios, New York City; November 13, 1953
Disc 3:
Thelonious Monk Quintet
Side A
1. We See
2. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
Side B
1. Locomotive
2. Hackensack
Personnel:
Thelonious Monk – piano
Ray Copeland – trumpet
Frank Foster – tenor saxophone
Curly Russell – bass
Art Blakey – drums
Recorded at Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, NJ; May 11, 1954.
Disc 4:
Thelonious Monk Plays
Side A
1. Work
2. Nutty
Side B
1. Blue Monk
2. Just A Gigolo
Personnel:
Thelonious Monk – piano
Percy Heath – bass
Art Blakey – drums
Recorded at Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, NJ; September 22, 1954
Disc 5:
Sonny Rollins and Thelonious Monk
Side A
1. The Way You Look Tonight
2. I Want To Be Happy
Side B
1. More Than You Know
Personnel:
Thelonious Monk – piano
Sonny Rollins – tenor saxophone
Tommy Potter – bass
Art Taylor – drums
Recorded at Van Gelder Studio, Hackensack, New Jersey; October 25, 1954
Exploring the Nine Inch Nails Live Setup with Alessandro Cortini and Ilan Rubin
The multi-instrumentalist and drummer explain how to transform Trent Reznor’s Nine Inch Nails recordings into performance.
Photo Gallery: Tori Amos at Toronto’s Massey Hall
All photos by Mini’s Memories. You can contact her at minismemories@hotmail.com
Luna Lee Performs The Doors’ “Riders On The Storm” On The Gayegeum
Musician Luna Lee’s latest gayageum arrangement is The Doors’s classic Riders on the Storm.
Paul McCartney’s Isolated Vocals For “Jet”
Jet was the first British and American single to be released from Paul McCartney and Wings’ Band on the Run album. The song’s title was inspired by McCartney’s Labrador Retriever dog named “Jet”, as he says in Paul McCartney: In His Own Words.
We’ve got a Labrador puppy who is a runt, the runt of a litter. We bought her along a roadside in a little pet shop, out in the country one day. She was a bit of a wild dog, a wild girl who wouldn’t stay in. We have a big wall around our house in London, and she wouldn’t stay in, she always used to jump the wall. She’d go out on the town for the evening, like Lady and the Tramp. She must have met up with some big black Labrador or something. She came back one day pregnant. She proceeded to walk into the garage and have this litter… Seven little black puppies, perfect little black Labradors, and she’s not black, she’s tan. So we worked out it must have been a black Labrador. What we do is if either of the dogs we have has a litter, we try to keep them for the puppy stage, so we get the best bit of them, and then when they get a bit unmanageable we ask people if they want to have a puppy. So Jet was one of the puppies. We give them all names. We’ve had some great names, there was one puppy called Golden Molasses. I rather like that. Then there was one called Brown Megs, named after a Capitol executive. They’ve all gone now. The people change the names if they don’t like them.
Slash from Guns N’ Roses Turns Into A Pumpkin In Amazing Halloween Video
Just in time for Halloween, Slash has been immortalized as a pumpkin, and the likeness, let alone the craftsmanship has to be seen to be believed. Seen here, the Slash-o’-lantern, which was created by AXS and professional pumpkin carver John Neill (known as the “Pumpkin Guru”), perfectly captured the lead guitarist of Guns N’ Roses iconic look—complete with his famous hat and hair. The process took a total of 16 hours and was created to celebrate Halloween, along with the upcoming concerts on the legendary rock band’s tour. The fun, timelapse video turns the hours of work into 60 seconds.
“With the hat, glasses, nose ring and hair, there are few rockers more iconic and it was kick to carve Slash,” said Jon Neill, a world-renowned champion carver celebrity seen on Food Network, Snickers Halloween Commercial, Nickelodeon and more. “It wasn’t without it’s challenges, and it actually ended up being two pumpkins overall — one for his face and one for his hat. But fair to say it was a rockin’ likeness, easily one of my favorite of the season to carve.”
Dan Auerbach Announces 20-Date “Easy Eye Sound Revue Tour”
Today, eight-time GRAMMY winner, Dan Auerbach announces the 20-date “Easy Eye Sound Revue Tour,” featuring Robert Finley and Shannon Shaw, with special guests Shannon & the Clams. The extensive North American tour will kick off on February 10 in Vancouver with stops in Brooklyn, Portland, Austin, Seattle, Los Angeles, Nashville and more. Shannon & The Clams, the latest signing to Dan Auerbach’s label, Easy Eye Sound, will release their new album, produced by Auerbach, via the label in February and open every show on this tour. Each night will also feature performances by fellow Easy Eye Sound artists including Robert Finley, Shannon Shaw and of course, Dan Auerbach, all backed by the The Easy Eye Sound house band, which Relix Magazine named “Nashville’s New Wrecking Crew.” Tickets for this tour will go on sale on November 3rd at 10am Local Time.
Dan Auerbach, will also tape a performance of PBS’s lauded and long-running Austin City Limits on Monday, November 27, in support of his acclaimed new solo album Waiting On A Song. Information on how to get free passes for this taping will be posted a week before on ACL’s Facebook and Twitter. Additionally, Auerbach will open for John Prine, with whom he wrote the title track off Waiting On A Song, in November in Washington D.C. and Richmond.
A new 7” Easy Eye Sound sampler, Good Sound Comes Back Around Vol. 1, will be released on Friday, November 24th, as part of Record Store Day’s Black Friday initiative. The new 7” is a preview of upcoming releases on Auerbach’s label and features “Cellophane Angel,” an exclusive and unreleased track Auerbach recorded with the Preservation Hall Band, on Side A, and Robert Finley’s “Medicine Woman”— the first single on Goin’ Platinum! due December 8th— and Sonny Smith’s “Pictures of You” on Side B.
Auerbach’s new solo album, Waiting On A Song, which NPR Music calls “a batch of sparkling pop songs that’s sweet, breezy, and primed for summer,” is out now on Easy Eye Sound, and you can listen to it here. The album is Auerbach’s follow-up to 2009’s Keep It Hid and is his love letter to Nashville. As such, he recruited some of Na¬shville’s most respected players to write and record his latest, including John Prine, Duane Eddy, Jerry Douglas, Russ Pahl, Pat McLaughlin as well as Bobby Wood and Gene Chrisman of the Memphis Boys. Auerbach said about working with his musical heroes: “Living in Nashville has definitely changed the way I think about music and the way that I record it. I didn’t have all of these resources before. I am working with some of the greatest musicians that ever lived.”
Recently, Dan Auerbach debuted the music video for “Stand By My Girl” via Stereogum. Auerbach also appeared on CBS This Morning: Saturday for an in-depth interview with host Anthony Mason about his new album, Waiting On A Song, from which he played three songs, “Shine On Me,” “Waiting On A Song,” and “Never In My Wildest Dreams.” Watch the interview and performance here. Additionally, Auerbach premiered his music video for “Waiting on A Song” via Rolling Stone and appeared on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert recently to perform the songs “Shine On Me” and “King Of A One Horse Town”. NPR Music premiered the video for Waiting On A Song’s first single, “Shine on Me”.
Waiting On A Song is the debut release, and marks the launch of Easy Eye Sound, Dan Auerbach’s new record label which will feature releases from other artists and is distributed by Auerbach’s longtime label Nonesuch Records. The next release on Easy Eye Sound will be of legendary bluesman Robert Finley’s new album this fall. Easy Eye Sound is built equally around Auerbach’s Easy Eye Studio in Nashville, where The Black Keys recorded their last two albums, as well as the collection of famous session musicians that have come to call the studio home. Auerbach says, “Sometimes I feel I created my own Field of Dreams. I built the studio because I knew something was going to happen. I built it to accommodate live musicians playing, and then all of a sudden the best musicians in Nashville show up, and it’s happening.”
Dan Auerbach- Waiting On A Song Track List
1. Waiting On A Song
2. Malibu Man
3. Livin’ In Sin
4. Shine On Me
5. King Of A One Horse Town
6. Never In My Wildest Dreams
7. Cherrybomb
8. Stand By My Girl
9. Undertow
10. Show Me
Dan Auerbach Tour Dates
November 10 /// Washington DC /// DAR Constitution Hall*
November 11 /// Richmond VA /// Altria Theater*
November 27 /// Austin Texas /// The Moody Theatre [Austin City Limits]
*w/ John Prine
Dan Auerbach & the Easy Eye Sound Revue featuring Robert Finley, Shannon Shaw with special guests Shannon & the Clams
February 10 /// Vancouver, BC /// Vogue Theatre
February 11 /// Portland, OR /// Crystal Ballroom
February 12 /// Seattle, WA /// The Showbox
February 14 /// San Francisco, CA /// The Fillmore
February 17 /// Los Angeles, CA /// The Wiltern
February 18 /// Santa Ana, CA /// The Observatory
February 19 /// San Diego, CA /// The Observatory North Park
February 20 /// Phoenix, AZ /// The Van Buren
February 22 /// Dallas, TX /// Canton Hall
February 23 /// Austin, TX /// Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheater
February 25 /// Nashville, TN /// Ryman Auditorium
March 24 /// Philadelphia, PA /// Union Transfer
March 25 /// Boston, MA /// House of Blues
March 27 /// Brooklyn, NY /// Brooklyn Steel
March 29 /// Toronto, ON /// Danforth Music Hall
March 31 /// Cleveland, OH /// Agora Theater
April 02 /// Chicago, IL /// Riviera Theatre
April 03 /// St. Paul, MN /// Palace Theatre
April 04 /// Kansas City, MO /// The Truman
April 05 /// Denver, CO /// Paramount Theatre