This winter, Bill Murray brings an extra-special dose of holiday cheer to Netflix with the premiere of an all-star musically-driven holiday special, A Very Murray Christmas. Set inside New York City’s iconic Carlyle hotel, A Very Murray Christmas opens with Murray preparing to host a live, international holiday broadcast. After a blizzard shuts down the production, he makes the best of the situation by singing and celebrating with friends, hotel employees and anyone else who drops by.
In a new episode of Pitchfork’s video series Over/Under, Wilco rate random topics including the ’90s (“Every era is underrated, and the idea of decades is overrated”).
The recluse of classic rock is back. On November 20th, Manifesto Records will release Heighty Hi, a single CD retrospective of Lee Michaels’ biggest hits during his 7 album run at A&M Records from 1968-1973. It’s his first compilation in print in over five years. His massive 7 CD box set arrives that day as well.
Heighty Hi – The Best Of Lee Michaels, is a 20 song, single CD compilation of his biggest hits, including his Top 10 hit single “Do You Know What I Mean,” as well as FM Radio anthem “Heighty Hi.” Also included are other singles and FM Radio staples such as “The War” and “Keep The Circle Turning,” as well as “Goodbye, Goodbye,” a non-LP b-side. All of the twenty songs have been digitally remastered from the tapes to bring out the highest sound quality from the classic recordings.The CD packaging will feature amazing archival photos of Michaels, as well as an 8 page booklet with comprehensive liner notes and quotes. The name of the 20 song CD compilation originates from one of the catchiest drug songs ever written “Heighty Hi,” the closing track off of his 1969 album, Lee Michaels.
Here is a great clip of Lee performing on The Music Scene, an ABC show hosted by comedian David Steinberg!
On the same day, Lee Michaels, The Complete A&M Album Collection brings together the seven albums that singer/keyboardist Lee Michaels released on A&M Records between 1968-73. Though his singles have been compiled a few times, the full albums were only on CD once before and are now long unavailable. Famous for one irresistibly catchy single, (“Do You Know What I Mean,” a Top Ten hit single in 1971), Michaels covered more ground on his albums—from heavy organ rock and R&B, to politically slanted pop, to hippie-friendly sing-alongs and proto-grunge guitar jams. Taken together, this catalogue is one of the buried treasures of its era.
Michaels and his drummer Frosty were the first Organ/power drums duo to hit the stage. They were followed by synth/drum bands like Silver Apples and Suicide, but no significant rock n’ rollers until the Flat Duo Jets in the late 80s and the White Stripes and Black Keys in the 90s (both of whom utilized guitar instead of keyboard).
After retiring from the business in the early 80s, unlike most beloved musical iconoclasts, he turned his back on interviews and performance opportunities for decades, preferring to focus on his ultra-popular Los Angeles based restaurant Killer Shrimp and playing at home. That Devil Music said, “Lee Michaels is one of the great lost artists of the rock ‘n’ roll ‘70s. A soulful singer with an incredible range, and capable of expressing great emotion, Michaels was also a talented songwriter and keyboard player, his performances based around his trusty Hammond organ years before folks like Deep Purple and Uriah Heep pushed keyboards to the front of their songs.”
In Vancouver, in June 1970, the fledgling Greenpeace organization made plans to sail a boat into the US nuclear test zone in the Aleutian Islands. To raise money, co-founder Irving Stowe decided to stage a benefit concert, and wrote a letter to Joan Baez. Although Baez could not attend, she sent a check for $1,000, recommended he call Joni Mitchell and stalwart anti-war activist Phil Ochs, and gave Stowe their phone numbers. Both agreed to perform, and the date was set for 16 October, 1970 at the Vancouver Coliseum.
A week before the concert, Mitchell phoned Stowe at his home and asked if she could bring a guest. Stowe covered the phone and whispered to his family, “She wants to bring James Taylor. Who’s James Taylor?” His fourteen year-old daughter Barbara thought he meant James Brown. “He’s that black blues singer!” she said. Stowe nodded, and spoke into the phone, “Yeah, sure. Bring him.”
The next day, they visited a record store and discovered that James Taylor had just released his second album, Sweet Baby James, already at the top of the charts, with hit song “Fire and Rain.” The local producer added British Columbia band Chilliwack, with a hit single of their own, “Lydia Purple.” There was no public advance notice of the mystery guest, James Taylor, but tickets sold out quickly.
Phil Ochs, opened the show and spoke directly to the raison d’etre of the evening with his song “I Ain’t Marchin’ Anymore.” Chilliwack got the crowd into a rock-‘n’-roll frenzy. James Taylor stunned the crowd with his cryptic “Carolina On My Mind” and “Fire and Rain.” Joni Mitchell appeared visibly nervous, still uncertain about her headline status, but her popular songs “Chelsea Morning” and “Big Yellow Taxi” brought shrieks of joy from the audience. James Taylor joined her for an encore, singing Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man.” Irving Stowe raised the peace sign and delivered flowers to Mitchell on stage. After expenses, the event netted $17,000. This money, and the attention from the concert, lifted the nascent Greenpeace to a new stature. Attendance at the meetings swelled, and money poured in.
There’s good and perhaps a lot of bad that can be used for good with what the internet has added to the picture that is today’s music industry. Do you think that there’s any chance that the music industry eventually figures things out?
They have to. But probably the best route they should take, I think they’ve been playing catchup for a long time — they’re constantly trying to readjust and adapt. I think that probably the truth of the matter, the answer is to start from scratch and create a whole new playbook. Forget everything — they keep trying to adjust what they knew — throw it out the window and say, “Okay, we’re starting out, now how do we create a new music industry, forgetting everything that went before?” Just get it out of your mind. Because it haunts people, it clouds their judgement and they keep trying to recapture — and it all comes down to economics, you recapture that. Well, forget that — start with a blank piece of paper and say, “Okay, now we’re making a music industry. These are the elements we have, this is the way music is created, this is the way music is transmitted, this is how it’s shared and enjoyed.” Build a whole new business plan off of that. I don’t think anybody, at least that I’m aware of, has done that, started with just a blank slate and just started over. I think that’s really what needs to be done. Just level the f—ing building and build something brand new.
With a career that has spanned over sixty years, Pat Boone has achieved an amazing number of accomplishments. He has been a successful singer, composer, actor, writer, television personality, motivational speaker, and spokesman. He is one of rock & roll’s best-selling artists and has sold over 45 million albums, had 38 Top 40 hits, and appeared in more than 12 Hollywood films. He still holds the Billboard record for charting consecutive weeks by spending 220 consecutive weeks on the charts with one or more song each week. He has hosted his own TV show and has written a number of books including 2 million – plus sellers that have been translated into many languages. Currently, he continues to perform for an audience of millions on both TV and radio, has just completed 2 films and is still recording.
“This classic, ultimate party record fulfills a career long desire to record with many of my most favorite artists, bringing me back full circle to my first R&B million sellers,” say an enthusiastic Boone.
Not one to rest on his laurels, Pat Boone decided to expand his horizons by recording his first ever R&B album. And not one to do things in a small way, he was thrilled to work with some of the genre’s biggest superstars of all time! He has powerful duets with James Brown, Smokey Robinson, Earth Wind & Fire, The Four Tops, and KC & The Sunshine Band plus members of Kool & the Gang, and Sister Sledge and even Hip Hop legend Kool Moe Dee. By joining with Cleopatra Records, this stunning album now has national distribution is available to his legion of fans worldwide.
Pat Boone R&B Duet Hits Track Listing
Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag with James Brown
Soul Man with Sam Moore
Get Down Tonight with KC & The Sunshine Band
Tears of a Clown with Smokey Robinson
Celebration with Robert “Kool” Bell of Kool & The Gang
I Can’t Help Myself with The Four Tops
A Woman Needs Love with Ray Parker Jr.
We are Family with Joni Sledge of Sister Sledge
Shotgun with Geraldo Albright
That’s The Way Of The World with Earth, Wind & Fire
I’m really tired of people complaining there’s nothing good coming out in the music industry. No real artists anymore. Well, you’re not looking hard enough.
Every week, music makers unleash thousands of new recordings on the world, most of which has yet to be reviewed, blogged about, analyzed, or even heard beyond their inner circle. If you’re excited by the freshest sounds the world has to offer, you’ve already found out how hard that is, especially if you’re looking for a particular kind of music. Named for the hat in the Harry Potter books and films, Spotify’s New Release Sorting Hat can help.
This week, there were over 3,000 albums uploaded to Spotify. 3,000! And Spotify is helping you sift through them all.
This “experimental attempt at an algorithmic organization of the week’s new releases,” as it’s described by creator and Spotify data alchemist Glenn McDonald, takes a fresh approach to the problem, with powerful implications for music fans who want to explore brand new music each week, delight their ears, and impress their friends by always seeming to be first to the party — in just about any genre.
To hear each week’s new releases sorted by genre, bookmark, share, and repeatedly visit Spotify’s New Release Sorting Hat, which updates each Friday (the new global release date) with the latest music to appear on the service.
My parents-in-law are big Fox News fans. They’re incredibly interested in the development of politics in America, from the network’s perspective, and although I’m rarely on the channel, this interview was definitely worth watching. Ex-MTVer Kennedy is now one of the popular hosts on Fox, and here’s a cool interview she recently completed with Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic, who talked about proportional representation, Citizens United and Bernie Sanders.
Those of you who enjoy science will dig this. Those that enjoy watching gooey stuff being pour over objects will dig it even more. Cymatics is a subset of modal vibrational phenomena. The term was coined by Hans Jenny (1904-1972), a Swiss follower of the pseudoscience known as anthroposophy. Typically the surface of a plate, diaphragm or membrane is vibrated, and regions of maximum and minimum displacement are made visible in a thin coating of particles, paste or liquid. Different patterns emerge in the excitatory medium depending on the geometry of the plate and the driving frequency. So, take some motor oil over a booming speaker, and voila! Instant video viralness!
