DJ/Producer Chris Read (BBE, http://www.whosampled.com) gave us a journey into the history of sampling at our recent PB x Ableton event at Point Blank in London, covering the origins of hip-hop through to the use of samples in today’s pop music.
Jena Malone and The Shoe Performance Now Available On Sessions X
Jena Malone, of The Hunger Games, and Lem Jay Ignacio make up The Shoe, an unconventional two piece band featuring songs like Paper Cup, Harry Barry, and Dead Rabbit Hopes. The exclusive interview & performance is now available on Sessions X https://www.sessionsx.com/?type=artists&name=the-shoe
Jena Malone and Lem Jay Ignacio first met at an acoustic Christmas carol party at the Mandrake in Los Angeles, California in 2008. They ended up playing that night and meeting for the first time on stage. They performed “Walking in a Winter Wonderland” but with Jena singing completely in scat-style gibberish and Lem Jay not musically missing a beat. A unique musical friendship and language was born.
Sessions X is the pioneering on demand video streaming app, which captures intimate in-studio performances and behind-the-scenes content in brilliant 4K video and HD audio, offering an unparalleled sensory experience. It’s music the way it was meant to be seen and heard.
Limited free access to Sessions X is available with registration. A $5.99 monthly premium membership gives subscribers uninterrupted, ad-free access to all Sessions X original music programming. New videos are added weekly.
U2’s The Joshua Tree Tour Gets Extended
Live Nation confirmed today that, due to incredible demand, select new stadium shows have been added to U2 The Joshua Tree Tour 2017. The newly announced dates include a limited return to North America with concerts announced in Detroit, Buffalo, Minneapolis, Indianapolis, Kansas City, St. Louis and San Diego. The tour will then head to Mexico City followed by concerts in Bogota, Buenos Aires, Santiago and Sao Paulo. Tickets for the North American performances go on sale Monday, June 12th. On sale dates in Latin America vary – full listings follow.
An anniversary edition of the The Joshua Tree was just released by Interscope Records on June 2. Alongside the 11-track album, the super deluxe collector’s edition includes a live recording of The Joshua Tree Tour 1987 Madison Square Garden concert; rarities and B-sides from the album’s original recording sessions; as well as 2017 remixes from Daniel Lanois, St Francis Hotel, Jacknife Lee, Steve Lillywhite and Flood; plus an 84-page hardback book of unseen personal photography shot by The Edge during the original Mojave Desert photo session in 1986. The Joshua Tree was produced by Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. Full details of all formats are available at http://www.u2.com/news/title/the-joshua-tree-at-30.
Currently wowing fans and critics alike across North America, U2 The Joshua Tree Tour 2017 wraps up North America July 1st, heading on to Europe where it kicks off a sold out tour with two shows in London on July 8th & 9th followed by concerts in Berlin, Rome, Barcelona, Dublin, Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels. It will then relaunch in North America September 3rd with a return to Detroit – the city where U2 first played a headline stadium show back on April 30th, 1987 at the Silverdome on the original Joshua Tree Tour. Tickets for the U2: The Joshua Tree Tour 2017 are on sale Monday, June 12th in North America. Ticket prices start at $35.00 with general admission floor tickets at $70.00. There will be an exclusive priority presale for U2 Subscribers at U2.com starting Thursday, June 8th (10am) through Saturday, June 10th (5pm) local times for U2.com subscribers who may have missed out on the previous presale opportunity along with new subscribers. There will be a 4 ticket limit for subscriber purchases and a 6 ticket limit commencing with public sales. In North America, all floor tickets will be paperless unless otherwise noted. Special guest for the North America concert dates to be announced.
In Mexico and South America, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds have been confirmed as special guest for all dates. Tickets will go on sale Wed. June 14th in Mexico City, June 15th in Bogota, Buenos Aires and Santiago and Friday in Sao Paulo. There will be an exclusive priority presale for U2 Subscribers at U2.com starting Thursday, June 8th (10am) through Saturday, June 10th (5pm) local times for U2.com. All times local.
U2 The Joshua Tree Tour 2017 is produced by Live Nation Global Touring. UPS is the Official Logistics Provider of the tour.
U2 THE JOSHUA TREE TOUR 2017
– NEW DATES ANNOUNCED –
September 3 Detroit, MI Ford Field On sale June 12
September 5 Buffalo, NY New Era Field On sale June 12
September 8 Minneapolis, MN US Bank Stadium On sale June 12
September 10 Indianapolis, IN Lucas Oil Stadium On sale June 12
September 12 Kansas City, MO Arrowhead Stadium On sale June 12
September 16 St. Louis, MO The Dome At America’s Center On sale June 12
September 22 San Diego, CA Qualcomm Stadium On sale June 12
October 3 Mexico City, Mexico Foro Sol On sale June 14
October 7 Bogota, Columbia, Estadio El Campin On sale June 15
October 10 Buenos Aires, Argentina La Plata On sale June15
October 14 Santiago, Chile Estadio Nacional On sale June 15
October 19 Sao Paulo, Brazil Morumbi Stadium On sale June 16
For complete tour and ticket information, visit: www.u2.com & www.livenation.com
Student activist, community gardening hub, and inspiring high school teacher receive national environmental awards
Earth Day Canada (EDC), with support from the RBC Foundation, Mill Street Brewery and UFile, is pleased to announce that Emmanuelle Melis (Youth) of Toronto, Ont.; Jean Hall-Armstrong (Individual) of Thunder Bay, Ont.; The Riverwood Conservancy (Group) of Mississauga, Ont.; Fresh City Farms (Small Business) of Toronto, Ont.; and David Gordon (Teacher) of Toronto, Ont., have been selected as EDC’s 2017 Hometown Heroes Award Winners.
“The goal of this awards program is to recognize and celebrate the efforts of local Canadian heroes who are making a difference to help the planet — often without any compensation or fanfare for their hard work,” says Deb Doncaster, President of Earth Day Canada. “This year, we added a new Teacher Award, and have been so impressed with the accomplishments of our finalists and winners.”
All of the Hometown Heroes Award Winners receive a custom-designed statuette along with a $5,000 cash prize. The Youth Award winner can donate the money to a local environmental group or cause of their choice or put it toward a post-secondary scholarship; the Individual Award winner must donate it to a local environmental group or cause of their choice; the Group Award winner can use it to support their ongoing work; the Teacher Award winner can donate it to their school to support further environmental efforts; and the Small Business Award must use it to make an operational change that results in the organization lessening its environmental impact.
The winners will be presented with the awards at a ceremony hosted by Earth Day Canada on June 14, 2017, in Toronto, to be emceed by youth eco-activist and WE ambassador Hannah Alper, with a keynote speech by children’s author Kenneth Oppel and special appearance by three-time Olympic medallist Silken Laumann, who will be receiving a separate award for Outstanding Achievement.
The Hometown Heroes Award Program was established in 2004 by Earth Day Canada to recognize and celebrate environmental leaders who foster meaningful, long-term community awareness and action.
This year’s winners are …
Emmanuelle (Emma) Melis, head of her high school Eco Team, has led successful fundraising campaigns for environmental charities and raised money to install a water bottle refilling station at her school. She also implemented composting and recycling systems in local elementary and high schools, works to raise awareness about pollinator population conservation, and is writing and illustrating a children’s book series called The Climate Change Chronicles.
Jean Hall-Armstrong, co-chair of the Public Advisory Committee to the Thunder Bay Remedial Action Plan and member of the Thunder Bay District Stewardship Council and Thunder Bay Field Naturalists, is a community worker with a focus on improving water and wildlife habitat in the Great Lakes. She participated in an initiative to remediate a site containing 50,000 cubic metres of creosote-contaminated sediment, and has worked on various habitat projects to purify the water and boost local wild life populations and biodiversity.
The Riverwood Conservancy is comprised of an active board of directors, staff and volunteers in Mississauga who lead school and public programming such as nature walks and astronomy nights while also devoting thousands of hours to restoring wildlife habitats, planting native plant species and connecting people with nature. Almost 100,000 members of the community have engaged in efforts spearheaded by the Conservancy.
Fresh City Farms produces, sources and delivers fresh, local, primarily organic produce and prepared meals with as low a carbon footprint as possible. They deliver using electric vehicles or bicycles and encourage pickup from centralized depots to minimize emissions. Fresh City’s newly built greenhouse has a solar-paneled roof, a rainfall capture system and a drip irrigation system to conserve water. The company goes to great lengths to avoid disposable packaging (they are known for their salads, soups and smoothies delivered in reusable jars). Excess food is sold to juicing or jam-making companies or simply donated to staff or local community organizations, and they regularly open their doors to volunteers and students looking to learn more about sustainable agriculture practices.
David Gordon is a teacher at Dunbarton High School in Pickering, Ont., where he runs the environmental student council. He played an important role helping students adopt a local park and revitalize it by planting a pollinator garden and 300 native tree species and installing educational signage. He also advised a group of students in launching the Greenbelt Youth Charter, in partnership with EcoSpark, in 2015 — here, 100 community guests and eight NGOs gathered to hear talks on the importance of sustaining the Ontario Greenbelt.
For more information about Earth Day Canada’s Hometown Heroes Award Program, please visit earthday.ca/hometown.
This year’s Hometown Heroes Award finalists are …
Youth: Hayley Todesco (Calgary, AB) and Maya Burhanpurkar (Oro-Medonte, ON)
Individual: Lisa Scott (Summerland, BC) and Bruce Mackenzie (Grimsby, ON)
Group: Clean Annapolis River Project (Annapolis Royal, NS) and Rivers Collegiate (Rivers, MB)
Small Business: Passive Design Solutions (Hubley, NS) and Sawmill Sid Inc. (Mississauga, ON)
Teacher: Ann Jackson (Russell, ON) and Pascale Baillargeon (Iqaluit, NU)
40 Years of Hip Hop Featuring 150 Songs From 100 Different Artists In 4 Minutes
THE HOOD INTERNET presents 40 YEARS OF HIP HOP. This mashup contains 150 songs from more than 100 artists representing 40 years of hip hop all crammed into 4 minutes. It’s not a chronological history of hip hop, but rappers from different eras finishing each other’s rhymes over intersecting beats, all woven together to make one song.
Listen To Bob Dylan’s Nobel Lecture in Literature
Bob Dylan received the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”. In the speech, Dylan speaks of his songwriting, his love of Buddy Holly and folk music, and some of his favorite literature growing up. He says, “When I first received this Nobel Prize for Literature, I got to wondering exactly how my songs related to literature.” He wasn’t the only one.
Feelin’ Groovy: Rhino Records Plans Vinyl Celebrations for Summer of Love Anniversary
The summer of 1967 was a turning point in popular culture that drew as many as 100,000 young people to San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury neighborhood. It represented a social convergence driven by free thinking, hippie fashion, political upheaval, sexual freedom, drug use and creative expression. As the movement spread around the world, it led to an outpouring of poetry, artwork, and especially music.
In July, Rhino will launch its 50th anniversary celebration of the Summer of Love with vinyl re-issues of key albums from that era along with new compilations that provide a soundtrack to this defining moment of the Sixties.
The Grateful Dead were at the epicenter of the Haight-Ashbury scene and the band is well-represented during the celebration with Smiling On A Cloudy Day. This new compilation brings together 10 songs from the band’s early psychedelic period and includes tracks like “Morning Dew,” “China Cat Sunflower” and “St. Stephen.” The collection will be released on LP ($21.98) and CD ($7.98) on July 11.
More releases will arrive on July 11, including The Best of Peter, Paul & Mary: Ten Years Together ($21.98) and the mono version of Love’s self-titled debut ($21.98). Other releases include colored vinyl editions of The Association’s Insight Out ($21.98), The Young Rascals Groovin’ ($21.98) and The Beau Brummels’ Triangle ($21.98).
The next group of releases comes out on July 18 and features the mono version of Alice’s Restaurant by Arlo Guthrie ($24.98), The Electric Prunes’ eponymous debut on purple vinyl ($21.98), Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks on clear vinyl ($24.98) and Vanilla Fudge’s self-titled debut on white vinyl ($21.98).
A new compilation from The Monkees will also be released the same day. Summer of Love includes 12 tracks that focus on the group’s lesser-known psychedelic side. The collection will be released on LP ($21.98) and CD ($7.98). The LP Gettin’ Together: Groovy Sounds of the Summer of Love will also be released on July 18 for $14.98. Its 16 tracks spotlight memorable hits from 1967 like “Hip Hug-Her” by Booker T. & The M.G.’s, “You Keep Me Hanging On” by Vanilla Fudge and “Windy” by The Association.
The final round of releases from this Sumer of Love celebration will arrive on July 25 and includes Dusty In Memphis by Dusty Springfield ($24.98), Goodbye and Hello by Tim Buckley ($24.98) and the mono version Aretha Arrives by Aretha Franklin ($24.98). In addition, Wildflowers by Judy Collins will be pressed on translucent yellow vinyl ($21.98) and The Zodiac’s Cosmic Sounds will be pressed on glow-in-the-dark vinyl ($17.98).
And last, but certainly not least, is a new Nuggets collection – Transparent Days: West Coast Nuggets ($31.98). Pressed on transparent vinyl, this two-LP collection includes 30 songs by artists like The Peanut Butter Conspiracy (“Time Is After You,”) The Mojo Men (“She’s My Baby,”) M.C. 2 (“Smiling”) and Love (“Your Mind & We Belong Together”).
GRATEFUL DEAD: SMILING ON A CLOUDY DAY
LP Track Listing
Side One
1. “The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion)”
2. “Cream Puff War”
3. “Morning Dew”
4. “That’s It For The Other One”
5. “Born Cross-Eyed”
Side Two
1. “Dark Star”
2. “St. Stephen”
3. “China Cat Sunflower”
4. “Doin’ That Rag”
5. “Cosmic Charlie”
THE MONKEES: SUMMER OF LOVE
LP Track Listing
Side One
1. “Pleasant Valley Sunday”
2. “She”
3. “Porpoise Song” – Single Version
4. “Words”
5. “Star Collector”
6. “Birth Of An Accidental Hipster”
Side Two
1. “Take A Giant Step”
2. “Love Is Only Sleeping”
3. “Randy Scouse Git”
4. “Tapioca Tundra”
5. “Saturday’s Child”
6. “For Pete’s Sake”
GETTING’ TOGETHER: GROOVY SOUNDS OF THE SUMMER OF LOVE
LP Track Listing
Side One
1. “Groovin’” – The Young Rascals
2. “Windy” – The Association
3. “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)” – Harper’s Bizarre
4. “Bowling Green” – The Everly Brothers
5. “The Windows Of The World” – Dionne Warwick
6. “Next Plane To London” – The Rose Garden
7. “Carrie-Anne” – The Hollies
8. “It’s A Happening World” – The Tokens
Side Two
1. “Pleasant Valley Sunday” – The Monkees
2. “Sit Down, I Think I Love You” – The Mojo Men
3. “Transparent Day” – The West Coast Pop Experimental Band
4. “C’mon Marianne” – The 4 Seasons featuring the “sound” of Frankie Valli
5. “Hip Hug-Her” – Booker T. & The M.G.’s
6. “Gettin’ Together” – Tommy James & The Shondells
7. “I Had Too Much To Dream (Last Night) – The Electric Prunes
8. “You Keep Me Hanging On” – Vanilla Fudge
TRANSPARENT DAYS: WEST COAST NUGGETS
2LP Track Listing
Side One
1. “Transparent Day” – The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band
2. “Time Is After You” – The Peanut Butter Conspiracy
3. “Linda’s Gone” – The West Coast Branch
4. “I Could Be Happy” – The Dovers
5. “My Race Is Run – The Motleys
6. “The Happiness Song” – Gerry Pond
7. “Here’s Today” – The Rose Garden
8. “Bye Bye Bye” (Warner Bros. Single Version) – The Tikis
Side Two
1. “Make It Easy” – The Collectors
2. “I’ll Sell My Soul” – The Allies
3. “Goin’ Down” – The Waphphle
4. “Out Of Sight Out Of Mind” – Limey & The Yanks
5. “Where You Gonna Go” – Art Guy
6. “Got Love” – The Front Line
7. “She’s My Baby” – The Mojo Men
8. “Going Home” – Butch Engle & The Styx
Side Three
1. “Pandora’s Golden Heebie Jeebies” – The Association
2. “If You Could Be Him Instead” – Wayne Stewart
3. “Candlestickmaker” – Ron Elliott
4. “Smiling” – M.C. 2
5. “Momentarily Gone” – The Truth
6. “Degeneration Gap” – Tandyn Almer
7. “Baby Please Don’t Go” – The Ballroom
Side Four
1. “Come Alive” – Things To Come
2. “House Of Glass” – The Glass Family
3. “The Eagle Never Hunts The Fly” – The Bonniwell Music Machine
4. “Dawn Lights The Way” – Clear Light
5. “Shadows” – The Electric Prunes
6. “Changes (Tygstl)” – The Ceyleib People
7. “Your Mind & We Belong Together” – Love
Giorgio Moroder Gets Animated By Nicolo Bianchino In Lost Interview
Animator Nicolo Bianchino provides a wonderful cartoon accompaniment to the Giorgio Moroder interview featured in Daft Punk’s track Giorgio, brilliantly illustrating moments from master of disco’s formative years.
Giorgio from Nicolo Bianchino on Vimeo.
That Time The Pretenders Were Hit With Pies On A Kids’ TV Show
The British kids’ TV show Tiswas had a live studio audience filled with young fans and The Pretenders. In 1981 Chrissie Hynde, Martin Chambers and Pete Farndon had the pleasure of participating in a skit called The Phantom Flan Flinger Challenge. Not sure if any rock band would do this now…
Dana Carvey’s Impressions Of John Lennon and Paul McCartney Talking About Kanye West
On The Howard Stern Show, Dana Carvey did a bit from his new Netflix special, Straight White Male, 60, in which he imagines a spot-on conversation between Paul McCartney and John Lennon where Paul tries to explain Kanye West.