An introduction to synthesis by Dean Friedman back in the day. When he’s not twiddling LFO knobs and envelope sliders, Dean’s an indie recording artist with a slew of international chart hits and critically acclaimed albums to his credit. You can see what he’s currently up to on his website http://www.deanfriedman.com and his YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/deanfriedman
Photos: Chris Cornell At Toronto’s Massey Hall From 2015
Our hearts go out to Chris Cornell’s family, friends and fans today as we all mourn the loss together of this talented and electrifying musician. The world has lost another great.
Let’s take a look back to Chris’ performance at Toronto’s Massey Hall on October 9, 2015. All photos by Mini’s Memories. You can contact her at minismemories@hotmail.com
Chris Cornell has died at age 52
Chris Cornell, lead singer of Soundgarden and Audioslave, has died aged 52. In a statement to the Associated Press, his representative, Brian Bumbery, said Cornell died on Wednesday night in Detroit.
Bumbery called the death “sudden and unexpected” and said his wife and family were shocked. The statement said the family would be working closely with the medical examiner to determine the cause, and asked for privacy.
In addition to his music, Cornell also became involved in philanthropy and started the Chris and Vicky Cornell Foundation to support children facing challenges, including homelessness, poverty, abuse and neglect.
Stax Records to Reissue Melvin Van Peebles’ Groundbreaking Soundtrack ‘Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song’
Stax Records, an imprint of Concord Music Group and its Catalog Division, Craft Recordings, is pleased to announce the reissue of one of its most provocative titles: Melvin Van Peebles’ Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song. Consistently hailed as a landmark, genre-defining album, this 1971 soundtrack — performed by a then-unknown Earth, Wind & Fire with contributions by Van Peebles — will be made available on May 26th for the very first time in high-res and standard digital formats. The vinyl edition features audio remastered from the original analog tapes and cut on the original Stax lathe at Memphis’ Ardent studios, then pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Memphis Record Pressing. The remastered LP also includes new liner notes from author, journalist and music critic Jeff Weiss, as well as from Melvin’s son Mario Van Peebles, director of New Jack City (1991) and 2003’s Baadasssss!, which chronicles the making of his father’s landmark film.
Trailblazing writer, director, actor and composer Melvin Van Peebles was financially and creatively responsible for the entire production of Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song. Van Peebles not only directed, scripted, and edited the film, but also wrote the score and directed the marketing campaign. The film, which in the end grossed more than $10 million (the highest ever for an independent film at the time), was acclaimed for its political resonance with the black struggle. In his liner notes, Jeff Weiss notes, “For all the resistance mounting in the streets, no black director had yet made a film that captured the spirit of rebellion, frustration and the refusal to accept injustice. Van Peebles alchemized Malcolm X, Iceberg Slim and Soul on Ice with Huey Newton, Gil-Scott Heron and the French New Wave. Badass cinema was born.” The Black Panthers made the film required viewing. And despite the fact that few theaters would screen the X-rated film, the soundtrack helped to market the film to the masses, through radio waves and word of mouth. The success of the film proved to be a genre-defining moment, giving birth to Blaxploitation, and opening the doors for films like Shaft and Super Fly.
The soundtrack features a combination of hymn-based vocalization and jazz rhythms, capturing the funky, gritty and soulful spirit of the time, and foreshadowing the use of sampling that would occur in hip hop music, some 20 years later. Weiss adds, “The soundtrack operates like a surrealist Mobius strip comprised of call-and-response chants against the man…It’s as avant-garde as the film’s kinetic mix of psychedelic jump cuts and dream-like sequences. The music becomes a character itself, unseen but forcefully heard.”
The 60th anniversary of the legendary soul label Stax Records commemorates its extraordinary legacy as an international hit-making machine and its indispensable chapter in American musical history as an integrated company in the heart of the Civil Rights movement. The Stax 60 celebration will highlight the hits, deep cuts and rare tracks from the Memphis label’s heyday of the ’60s and ’70s, including the many legendary artists who jointly created the world-renown “Stax sound,” – Otis Redding, Booker T & the MGs, Isaac Hayes, The Staple Singers, Carla Thomas, Rufus Thomas, Johnnie Taylor, Eddie Floyd, William Bell, Sam & Dave, The Dramatics and many more. The Stax 60 campaign will honor the music from Soulsville USA through curated collections, deluxe box sets, hi-resolution audio, streaming playlists and unique vinyl initiatives.
Track list:
A1. Sweetback Losing His Cherry
A2. Sweetback Getting It Uptight And Preaching It So Hard The Bourgeois Reggin Angels In Heaven Turn Around
A3. Come On Feet
A4. Sweetback’s Theme
B1. Hoppin’ John
B2. Mojo Woman
B3. Sanra Z.
B4. Reggins Hanging On In There As Best They Can
B5. Wont Bleed Me
B6. The Man Tries Running His Usual Game But Sweetback’s Jones Is So Strong He Wastes The Hounds (Yeah! Yeah! And Besides That Will Be Coming Back Takin Names & Collecting Dues)
R.E.M. on meeting David Bowie
R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe and bass player Mike Mills talks with Matt Everitt for the BBC‘s The First Time With… on that time the group first met David Bowie.
Cinematic Games and Music Licensing
Cinematic games and music licensing have an uneasy relationship. On the one hand, a lot of people love to see games that truly tell a story these days. They want to be able to enjoy games that have music that will truly last the duration and feel of the stories. This setup truly requires music that is well-written and epic in its own right. The older video game scores and theme songs, which featured a lot of beeping and short bursts of sound, just will not cut it with the cinematic games of today.
However, licensing almost always becomes a huge problem when it comes to almost anything that is cinematic and almost anything that involves really good music in the first place. There are lots of television series that took a long time to be released on DVD purely because of all of the licensing issues involved with the background music of some of the episodes.
Some shows specifically focused on the quality of the music to a large extent, and this just made it that much more difficult for the entire piece to be released. Something similar seems to be happening with cinematic video games today. Background music is important with almost everything related to games today. People getting no deposit casino bonuses want to have music going on at some point, and people playing the simplest of flash games will want music. People who are playing detailed cinematic games certainly want beautiful music that will match.
Lots of people are trying to figure out solutions to this problem. Licensing agreements are inherently unstable. Even if the video game companies manage to secure the licensing agreements in the meantime, the agreements will usually have deadlines attached. Distributing the same game later will be that much more difficult as a result. Some developers will wonder why they bothered even using certain songs at that point in time.
Some developers are trying to get around this issue by just using scores that their own departments created for themselves. Lots of video games have purely original scores these days, and this should make a huge difference for the people who are trying to experience great music with their games but who are worried about the long-term changes with the licensing agreements.
Lots of people also really love the purely original video game scores. They might feel as if these are some of the best songs that could have been used under the circumstances, and they won’t miss almost any of the other songs that could have been used. Video game music itself is turning into a very popular genre by this point, making it that much easier for a lot of people to enjoy the games that they want and everything else. If the video game industry as a whole changes this way, licensing issues might be less of a problem. However, intellectual property laws are still often problematic for many people involved. Problems like this will still happen in the short-term.
Music Archeology: Reviving the World’s Forgotten Records
For generations, record collectors have played a vital role in the preservation of musical and cultural heritage by “digging” for obscure music created by overlooked artists. These music “archeologists” are consumed by a desire to give these records a second chance at being heard and appreciated. In our digital age, these record-diggers also act as music curators and are crucial alternative voices to a contemporary culture often served by computer algorithms.
Alexis Charpentier (DJ Lexis) is the founder of Music Is My Sanctuary (MIMS), a website and collective dedicated to showcasing “future classics & forgotten treasures” to an audience of open-minded music lovers. Created in 2007, the website has become a highly influential and trusted music source worldwide. In addition, MIMS launched several ventures such as 24 Hours of Vinyl, numerous signature events and several music curation projects, including a weekly radio show. For the past 15 years, Alexis has been a pillar of the Montreal music scene as DJ Lexis. He is a music entrepreneur, a music programmer at Montreal’s Phi Centre and tours for worldwide DJ shows and festivals.
Your First Look at the Epic Grateful Dead Documentary ‘Long Strange Trip’
Over the last 50 years, there has been a LOT of Grateful Dead audio releases – 67 live albums and 10 studio releases so far, and yet there hasn’t been a definitive documentary about the band, but all of that is changing with with this summer’s Long Strange Trip. And Deadheads will get their money’s worth: The film runs an impressive 241 minutes, or the equivalent of one fab Dark Star song.
You can get your first look at Long Strange Trip in the exclusive trailer below.
Directed by Amir Bar-Lev (The Tillman Story, My Kid Could Paint That) and produced by Martin Scorsese (every great film in history), Long Strange Trip culls new interviews, never-seen-before footage, concert performances, acid flashbacks, and more to tell the untold story of the Grateful Dead, from their conception in Palo Alto, California, to the 1995 death of leader Jerry Garcia and beyond.
“It’s not up to us to define the Grateful Dead, it’s a living breathing thing,” Garcia says in the preview. “That’s one of the parts of its magic.”
The documentary will be in theaters May 26 and on Amazon Prime June 2.
Miniot Wheel Turntable Isn’t Bigger Than A 12″ Vinyl Disc
Wheel by Miniot is an minimal record player. It’s only a wheel. Simple, pure and easy to use. Just place a record on Wheel and it will play the bottom. All functions are controlled by the center stick, and it even can play records while mounted vertically on a tabletop or on the wall.
One Time, Johnny Depp Destroyed A Hotel Room…
“I was in a bad mood and I assaulted a hotel room. I broke a lot of stuff and it felt good.” – Johnny Depp in 2009, as told to Cal Fussman