One day, we’re going to lose Jerry Lee Lewis, a legend who should, by his own accounts, been buried a long time ago. In this clip from Salute! in 1983, Keith Richards and Gary Busey isn’t essential, but this rarely-seen clip is fascinating, a chance to hear these three legends (hey, Busey was astounding in The Buddy Holly Story) coalesce over High School Confidential.
https://youtu.be/5xjYTTbyfg0
When Danger Mouse released The Grey Album, it was one of the first time anyone had attempted to mashup the untouchables – The Beatles. In 2010, Tom Caruana decided to take some Wu-Tang raps and connect Beatles samples on his Enter the Magical Mystery Chambers project. Deep inside his head, this idea worked, and it comes out brilliantly.
Slade in Flame (also known as Flame) is a 1975 film starring the members of the band Slade. In 2007, BBC film critic Mark Kermode called it the “Citizen Kane of rock musicals” and included its soundtrack among the 50 greatest soundtracks in cinema’s history. The film charts the history of “Flame” a fictitious group in the late 1960s who are picked up by a marketing company and taken to the top, only to break up at their zenith. The film begins with the future members of Flame playing in two rival bands, one with a singer named Jack Daniels (Alan Lake), and the other, The Undertakers, fronted by Stoker (Noddy Holder). Flame are formed from the two bands, with Charlie (Don Powell) joining on drums, making up the same line-up as the real-life Slade. They are picked up by marketing man Robert Seymour (Tom Conti) and with the help of publicity stunts the band’s fortunes improve, but their former agent (played by Johnny Shannon) stakes a claim to their earnings, and uses violence to try to get his way.
All this, from the band who sold over 6 million copies in the UK.
https://youtu.be/z20QI2MoWEo
Street drummer Dario Rossi amazes a crowd of people (and me at home) by performing an incredible drum roll on a collection of old buckets, pots, and pans at the Dam Square in Amsterdam.
hen I was a kid, we weren’t really supposed to listen to secular music. But one day, I found a Led Zeppelin IV cassette tape in the garage and it was just amazing-sounding music, not like anything I’d heard before. I remember thinking: ‘Well, if God created music, why is his music in church not as good as this?’”
– Nathaniel Rateliff
There’s no one person responsible for creating music festivals — or for making them such a huge part of how we witness live performances today. But starting in 1954, one person developed a recipe for their secret sauce.
George Wein still goes to his signature event every year, checking out performances and greeting the artists. These days, he does it on a golf cart which drives him between stages — he’s about to turn 90, after all — but he says he takes his job as producer very seriously.”If I don’t hear the music, I don’t know what my festival is all about,” Wein says. “So I have to hear the music.
“Wein was already running a jazz club in Boston — and playing some piano himself — when he met a wealthy tobacco heiress named Elaine Lorillard. She spent her summers with New England’s rich and famous in the seaside town of Newport, R.I. She thought jazz could entertain where the New York Philharmonic couldn’t. So she and her husband laid out a line of credit, Wein booked some big names (Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Billie Holiday), and the Newport Jazz Festival was born.
Via NPR
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Tom Waits’ Raindogs, here are some of Mr. Waits’ more memorable talk show moments.
“In March 1952 [John Williams] was reassigned to the 596th AF Band, Pepperrell Air Force Base, St. John’s, Newfoundland. During his stay at Pepperrell he was able to put his training to use with special arrangements penned for the 596th Dance band and Newfoundland folk songs re-arranged for the concert band sparking the many appearances of the Pepperrell Band. His greatest accomplishment during this period was the composing, arranging, directing and playing of a 22 minute film background score for a Newfoundland travelogue entitled “You Are Welcome.” The success of this accomplishment was reflected in the film being selected as “one of the outstanding travelogues for 1954” during a premier showing in New York City. The score was unique in that it utilized themes from Newfoundland folk songs for local color. In addition, the fact that the recording ensemble, composed of members of the 596th AF Band, was limited to 12 pieces and lacked the ever present “lush” string section necessitated Johnny to call upon his former training to gain proper utilization of the limited instrumentation and intricate scoring to give the over-all effect of a large orchestra.”
– Paul Galloway, The Beacon, Aug.27, 1954
The Canadian Independent Music Association (CIMA) and BuzzAngle Music are teaming up to bring the first-ever independent-only music sales and streaming charts to Canada, through the innovative technology of BuzzAngle Music.
Harnessing BuzzAngle Music’s comprehensive music data reporting technology, these new charts, set to launch later this year, will provide real-time, up-to-date data on the performance of releases from Canada’s independent music industry.
Both the new CIMA Top Independent Albums and CIMA Top Independent Songs charts, powered by BuzzAngle Music, will be published on a weekly basis on CIMA’s website (www.cimamusic.ca). CIMA and BuzzAngle Music are both proud to note that this is the first time that Canada will have an exclusive chart that puts the spotlight squarely on the strength of Canada’s domestic-owned independent music industry.
“We are extremely excited to partner with BuzzAngle music, in order to recognize the success of Canada’s independent music industry,” says Stuart Johnston, President of CIMA. “The introduction of this new service this year is a fitting way for CIMA to celebrate its 40th anniversary, and we thank BuzzAngle Music for providing the tools to make this happen. And the fact that CIMA members can access all of BuzzAngle’s data at an exclusive rate further demonstrates this company’s commitment to the Canadian independent music community.”
“There’s an endless amount of data to analyze in BuzzAngle Music’s daily charts, whether you’re an independent artist, label executive, journalist, record store clerk, or just a music fanatic,” said Jim Lidestri, Founder and CEO of Border City Media. “CIMA has been a tremendous organization and everyone involved deserves the timeliest, most specific and most accurate data available to them, so we’re thrilled to partner with them and make that happen for independent music in Canada.”
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Eric Alper is a 6-time nominee for Publicist of the Year during Canadian Music Week and has overseen the publicity campaigns for over 183 JUNO Award-nominated albums (and 16 in 2025), 45 Grammy-nominated albums, including 47 JUNO Award, 58 Canadian Folk Music Award, 126 Maple Blues Award-winning albums and is also truly honoured to work with some of the biggest and most important artists of our time.
Contact me: eric@thatericalper.com
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