5 posts tagged “bjork”
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Thanks to Bookishly Fabulous for pointing out that Ben Sollee was recently on NPR's "All Things Considered" (July 5, 2008).
It would be seem that Sollee is looking for a fight with Kanye West, who recently disappointed fans at Bonnaroo for being two hours late (performed at 4:30 am). He made national/internet news by blogging about the venue's inability to setup the lighting and Pearl Jam was already an hour late.
This "open letter" song to Kanye West basically tells off West that "you don't need a light show, just good flow".
You can read more about Ben Sollee on our previous W♥M articles.
Other interesting music news: Facebook's a hotbed of celebrity gossips. Lilly Allen and The Chemical Brothers' Ed Simon are back together. Apparently they both changed their facebook status to "in a relationship" and immediately thousand of fans wrote to congratulate them.
Björk seems to be canceling a few concerts, citing throat ailment. I'm not sure why that's so closely followed by the media, but Ex-Whitesnake guitarist is dead. Does anyone even know his name?
The outrageous headline of "Kylie Minogue Saves Fan from Suicide" makes it sound as if Minogue was there on the rooftop talking that person down. The truth is, the fan was listening to his iPod and her song came on and he suddenly didn't want to stab himself. (Lame, right?)
Also, some idiot stole the headstone to Joy Division's Ian Curtis' grave. I hope his ghost haunts him.
The sad news of the collector's mentality of the CD box sets are on its death bed (hint: maybe it's because it's too expensive). The Yahoo story (written by Ed Christman) paints a picture that "Boxed-set sales have fallen off the cliff; they went from something to nothing".
Even at price slashed to about $29.99 (from the regular $49.98), sales continues to decline. At the end of the article, they mentioned that the limited-edition box for Nine Inch Nails' "Ghosts I-IV," ($300) sold really well.
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Links:
weheartmusic.com
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Although W♥M are very, very tiny compared to some of the music blogs mentioned in Music Blogs: The New Wall of Sound article, I do have to admit this article does somewhat relate to us.
Some key things from the article that I totally relate to (except for the last bulletpoint):
- Most music blog are overwhelmed by success, and they never planned for it.
- Hardly any were trained as writers or music-industry veterans
- Music blog have enough readers to sway opinions and (basically) become hitmakers and record companies themselves
The biggest surprise, to me, was reading Rolling Stone's managing editor, Nathan Brackett's very dismissive comment about music blogs:
I wouldn't call what they do as writing, the blogs do the really quick 50-word update on what a band's doing. They'll write about (singer) Lilly Allen releasing a new EP or (that the band) Man Man is preparing an album. The way Rolling Stone competes is we pick up the phone and bring original reporting. We take advantage of our access. Most blogs don't have the staffs to pick up the phone.
- Nathan Brackett
This latest comment confirms that I did not like Rolling Stone Magazine, which I've previously admitted.
I really do believe they should be afraid of the more popular blogs, Stereogum or Pitchfork, because honestly, do you know anyone that buys and reads Rolling Stone regularly?
Granted, they were/are never going to be the same audience, but the way I read his quote, he sounds so unbelievably arrogant.
As of this writing, The Hills are on the cover of the latest Rolling Stone :/
Links:
www.news.com
Sure, everyone knows that Björk was previously in The Sugarcubes, but did you know she was previously in many other bands? I will be spotlighting some of her early bands, I won't go into a lot of details, only the more famous ones (since many of her early bands did not have official recordings).
The first major band that featured Björk is Tappi Tíkarrass (which rudely translates to "Cork the Bitch's Ass"). They're a funk/disco/jazz band in the early 80s. They did not stay together too long, only lasting three years and managed to released one album, Miranda (1983).
Their one major claim to fame was appearing on a TV documentary called "Rokk í Reykjavík" (1982). The documentary features 19 Icelandic band and a 2-disc soundtrack was also released the same year.
After Tappi Tíkarrass broke up, many of the members, including Björk, went on to join KUKL ("Witchcraft").
KUKL went on to release (I think) one album and two live album: The Eye (1984), KUKL à Paris 14.9.84 (1985), and Holidays in Europe (The Naughty Nought) (1986).
Existing alongside KUKL, was The Elgar Sisters was a side-project between Björk and Guðlaugur Kristinn Óttarsson (guitarist). Although they recorded 11 songs, I don't believe "The Elgar Sessions" were ever officially released. Some of the songs later appeared on Bjork's Family Tree boxset. This boxset is not to be confused with her greatest hits CD which was released on the same day with very similar artwork.
When KUKL disbanded, the Elgar Sisters also dissolved.
Eventually the members of KUKL became what we know as The Sugarcubes.
An interesting side note, during The Sugarcubes days, Björk released a jazzy album by Björk Guðmundsdóttir & Tríó Guðmundar Ingólfssonar called Gling-Gló (Ding-Dong) in 1990. As far as I know, this is the only album that her side project ever released. It wasn't even released domestically in the US until years later.
You probably didn't know, but Tríó Guðmundar Ingólfssonar was already an established bebop/jazz/piano band. The trio broke up in 1992 at the death of their pianist Guðmundur Ingólfsson.
Incidentally, the Gling-Glo album remains Iceland's best selling jazz album of all time.
Much more on the Sugarcubes and Bjork later.
11/08/2007 22:40:36
vu
my♥posts
vu@weheartmusic.com
www.bjork.com
There are some bands this boy is fated never to see. It saddens me to add The Decemberists to that list. Another tour, another missed opportunity.
Having discovered that The Decemberist concert I was supposed to attend in Newcastle clashed with a vegan wedding in Germany, I clambered to get tickets for the Liverpool concert on 10th October 2007. Oh joy, oh joy! The tickets were available! Unfortunately, the band is not!
According to their website:
With much regret The Decemberists have cancelled the remainder of our European tour. One of our band members is ill and needs to return immediately home to mend.
Our deepest apologies to all of our fans whom have purchased tickets to our forthcoming European shows. Unfortunately our calendar doesn't allow us to return to Europe at any point soon so please refund tickets at point of purchase.
It saddens us to disappoint our fans. We hope everybody understands that it is because of an extreme situation that we had to make such an abrupt change in plans.
Obviously, the We♥Music team hopes the sickly band member gets well soon...and I am not bitter in the slightest. Never one to let the bad news win, I thought I'd use this as an excuse to post two covers by The Decemberists.
The first track appeared in The Believer (June 2005 Music Issue) magazine. It is a cover of Joanna Newsom's Bridges And Balloons. The rest of the cover CD contains similar covers by a variety of artists.
If anybody has a copy of that The Believer CD, please feel free to contact me on the email address below.
The second track is taken from an album entitled 'Interpreting Bjork' and is exactly that, an interpretation of Bjork's Human Behaviour from her album Debut.
Anyway, to the best of my knowledge the Decemberists will honour their US tour with Laura Veirs. If you check out their tour page, you'll notice an option by each date to add it to your gcal or ical. I may not be getting to see The Decemberists but the geek in me loves calendar options so I am happy now.
October 8, 2007 03:55
Ryan
my♥posts
www.decemberists.com
I had a few cassingles for Information Society, so I'm going to put them on the playlist for this week! I love them so much !!
You may remember them back in the 80s with their big hit "What's On Your Mind (Pure Energy)", which had a big problem with the sampling of Leonard Nimoy from Star Trek.
