6 posts tagged “nirvana”
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I thought I would do something different for gathering news, since you may have noticed an absent of the weekly news. News will now be delivered though Links, from a variety of music news sources. I think the "links" links actully have a feed, so you can subscribe to this using your favorite rss newsreader. I personally use google reader myself, with about 500+ items every hour!
BO DIDDLEY
Topping the music news is the death of Bo Diddley from heart failure on June 2nd.
This R&B/Blues artist got his start in 1951 playing at the 708 Club
in Chicago, Illinois. By 1955, Bo recorded some demos, "I'm a Man" and
"Bo Diddley", the later went on to become a #1 R&B hit.
His early songs made him so famous, that he was asked to be on the Ed Sullivan show, but was eventually banned from subsequent appearance when he played "Bo Diddley" instead of a cover song of "Sixteen Tons".
That didn't end his career, instead Bo went onto record more hits.... and the rest is history.
Random vu-thoughts: it would seem to me that Bo Diddley had a passion for pop culture and genre, take for instance his "western" themed album titles: Have Guitar Will Travel (based on the western tv show "Have Gun - Will Travel") and Bo Diddley is a Gunslinger (with the title track having references to the famous shoot-out at the OK Corral). Later on, he would also have his "beach/surf" theme: Surfin' with Bo Diddley and Bo Diddley's Beach Party, all probably inspired by the teen-movie Beach Party.
UNDER SURVEILLANCE
I also wanted to talk about the innovative video by The Get Out Clause.
My my understanding, the band wanted to shoot a music video, but didn't
have the finance - so they thought up the idea to have surveillance
cameras film them in performance. Under the Freedom of Information Act,
they requested the footage of their appearances and pieced together
their video for "Paper".
The video
became viral and have spread all over the UK press and picked up by
NPR, making the band an instance success overnight! (That was in May).
With all the interests, you can pick up their EP, to be released July 7th and "hand made by the band". Judging from the picture of the pre-order, it looks very cool.
Anyway, I think their video is such a cool idea, but I can't help but feel uneasy how "big brother" England's become, no?
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"Seasons in the Sun" is one of those songs that is massively popular in Asia, especially where I'm from originally in Vietnam. I found out that the song is actually a 1961 Belgian French song called "Le Moribond" (The Dying Man) by folk singer Jacques Brel.
Brel lived in Belgium and moved to Paris in the 70s, and most of his body of work (from 1954 to 1977), was mostly composed and sung exclusively in French.
The song was translated into English and recorded as a song by Rod McKuen, which sounds kind of like Leonard Nimoy's acting/singing... especially at the end, where it gets a little exaggerated. I found the recording on imeem, so hopefully the embedding feature will work out.
Prior to Terry Jacks hit recording, there were several attempts by The Kingston Trio (1963) and The Fortunes (1968), and Pearls Before Swine (1970), but none of them ever got as popular as Jacks' version in 1974.
A couple of notes, about the Fortunes, they are still active (and playing live) and have the "Seasons in the Sun" song available for download on their website, although from listening to it, it sounds like, perhaps it's a re-recording(?). Anyway, some tour dates:
05/24/08 California Cliffs, Great Yarmouth.
06/06/08 Keswick Rugby Club, Cumbria
06/08/08 Whitby Pavillion
06/13/08 Memorial Social Center, Wickhambrook, Newmarket.
06/28/08 Theatre on the Steps, Bridgnorth, Shropshire
07/05/08 Spa Pavilion, Felixstowe
07/13/08 Pavilion Theatre, Cromer
07/19/08 Alvaston Hall, Nantwich (Warners)
07/25/08 Purley Chase Golf Club. Nr Nuneaton.
07/26/08 Artrix Theater Bromsgrove
07/31/08 Canterbury (CUTG)
More tour dates on thefortunes.co.uk
So the story behind the #1 hit song by Canadian singer Terry Jacks, was that Jacks had proposed to The Beach Boys to record "Seasons in the Sun", but The Beach Boys abandoned the project. Jacks decided to record and release the song himself, and to this day have sold over six million copies.
The main difference in Jacks' version and previous versions, was that his version is a little happier, including removing the 'cheating wife' part.
Speaking of happy, Westlife's version is ... let's just say quite interesting. Their singing and upbeat song doesn't really carry across the message of a dying man. At all. Still the song did well for them, although it was eventually left off their Greatest Hits CD in 2002, possibly due to licensing/royalities rights.
A vast contrast to Westlife's poppy version is from Nirvana, who seems to stumble through the song. It's also interesting to note that you see Kurt Cobain playing the drums, instead of Dave Grohl (who looks like he's playing bass in the video).
Also interesting to note is that the song is vastly popular with punk bands such as Bad Religion, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes and Blink 182.
I am including a few other covers below, my favorite is Black Box Recorder, who I've previously mentioned. Their version sounds like a French film soundtrack :).
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Links: www.weheartmusic.com
| Papi Chulo wrote: Tue, May 20, 2008 at 7:04 PM |
Don't forget the awesome version by Too Much Joy (click the Play link next to the track on that page. You can listen to 25 tracks per month free on Rhapsody). They were one of my favorites back in the day, and they still do the best version that I've ever heard. Even better live.
• Girls Gone Wild
• Mixican Heat (Fashion)
• Q&A With Elvis Costello
• Supreme Court vs Teens
• Layne Staley article
• Video Game Summer
Continuing on with my magazine coverage, we have the biggest US "music" magazine: Rolling Stone.
Although the magazine had its origin in news and music, they're actually more interested in movie stars and pop culture than music. Of all the major music magazine publishers out there, I have never liked RS.
So why do I have this issue you ask? Well, my brother had a free subscription for a year, so I ended up adding the magazine to my collection (since he never read it).
The main story that I'll be talking about is the Courtney Love vs the former Nirvana band members Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic. I remember really hating Love (haha) after reading this article.
After Cobain's suicide in 1994, there was a long legal battle over the rights and management of Nirvana's music. Love contests that Cobain only shared the royalties out of kindness and she wanted full control of the Nirvana empire.
The real losers in this court battle are the fans, who haven't heard anything new since In Utero, which was released in 1993.
It should be noted that shortly after the Rolling Stone article that Love and surviving Nirvana members settled out of court and a few months later the greatest hits Nirvana album was released. Included in this album was the final Nirvana studio recording of "You Know You're Right".
Since then, a Nirvana boxset appeared: With the Lights Out (Nov 2004) (selections from this boxset was released under the title Sliver: The Best of the Box in Nov 2005).
July 26, 2007 8:29 PM
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| Bouche wrote: Jul 26, 2007 8:57 PM |
[this is good] I subscribed to RS about 16 years ago. The most important feature was the articles concerning bands I liked and the CD reviews... Then along the way I think I developed a palate too eclectic and obscure than what they offered. I started djing in college and discovered CMJ magazine ... What isn't loveable about a music magazine that comes with a CD sampler? Whenever I bought it, it was like winning the lottery. Not only did I get tracks from bands I liked, but also from ones I never knew I liked... It were those CDs that made getting a music magazine exciting and what makes your posts a pleasure to read. It's great to have an offering of favorites others have found! that I might have missed. Thanks for all your work!
And I remember the first time I heard Smells like Teen Spirit. It was during the short period MTV actually played music... Most likely on 120 minutes. Strange how these services that were constructed around a love for 'music' seemingly abandoned it in favor of money. Not that money's a bad thing... But screwing a loyal viewer/subscriber base? That's not so good.
This was a free book that came with last month's Q Magazine. There's special categories for Oasis and Nirvana, etc, but I'm going to pick selections from their music genre category. I picked these questions because I didn't know the answer to them (well except for the Motley Crue question).
SELECTIONS FROM THE ESSENTIAL Q QUIZ BOOK
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If you need these questions answered, let me know, I'll do the research and post it later :)
Excerpt from NPR: Edward Elgar, Britain's Musical Icon, Turns 150 (written by Tom Huizenga):
This year-June 2nd to be exact-there's another such birthday. Edward Elgar was born 150 years ago in the west of England. He's no Mozart. In fact, he doesn't even come close to a top-10 list of all-time great composers, and there won't be much hoopla over the anniversary in this country.
After all, over here, we know Elgar almost exclusively for writing a little marching tune that gets trotted out about this time of year when students graduate. It's from Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1."
Related Entry: Edward Elgar - Pomp and Circumstance
vu 
Links: www.elgar.org | www.thecure.com
Rodney Bingenheimer is getting his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on March 9th, 2007 (tomorrow). They're just handing out these things like candy, huh?? To the world, nobody knows Rodney, but if you were in radio (or happened to live in Los Angeles), you'd probably heard of him. He's probably one of the world's most famous radio DJ, at least very influencial on his "Rodney on the ROQ" show on KROQ Radio.
Rodney was the subject of the documentary Mayor of the Sunset Strip (2003), which was directed by George Hickenlooper and produced by Chris Carter (not the X-Files creator).
Because it was produced by the bassist from Dramarama (Chris Carter) there was definitely a section about how Dramarama rose to fame in the US because of Rodney. Apparently, the band (formed in New Jersey in 1982), released their debut LP, Cinéma Vérité, in France under New Rose Records.
Rodney somehow got a hold of this record and started playing "Anything, Anything". He thought they were a French band (wow, their English is SO GOOD!). But it's all cool, because the airplay and demand for the band prompt the album to finally be released in America.
[copy/paste]
Rodney was the first to play records by - and interviews with such artists on his KROQ show as: Blondie, The Ramones, The Sex Pistols, Van Halen, The Go-Go's, Nina Hagen, The Cramps, Nena, The Clash, The Cure, The Smiths, The B-52's, Billy Idol, Adam Ant, Echobelly, Ride, X, Siouxie and the Banshees, Bad Religion, Duran Duran, The Jam, The Bangles, The Runaways, Redd Kross, Bananarama, Joan Jett, Tom Petty, Dramarama, Teenage Fan Club, Suede, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Echo and the Bunnymen, No Doubt, Blur, Elastica, Belly, L7, Sonic Youth, Nirvana, Rialto, Placebo, Oasis, The Verve, Kent, Ash, Gene, Travis, Coldplay, Doves, JJ72, The Strokes, Starsailor, The Hives, The Vines, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, and The Electric Soft Parade.
Trivia: Rodney, in the 60s, was best known as the stand-in for Davy Jones of the Monkees.
A while back, Melinda sent me this really cool Ash promo, it's called "Got A Beautiful Face/Got A Fucked-Up Inside". I have included a scan of the back sleeve and CD.
The title are lyrics from "Numbskull", and with the F-word and all, could never be officially released under that title.
"Halloween" is easily my favorite track. It's about a lonely bus ride to the character's hometown and eventually ended up at a Halloween party.
Most of the content eventually ended up being on the single to "A Life Less Ordinary", but it featured a lame Ewan McGregor and Cameron Diaz on the sleeve.
Trivia: Original title to this song is "Happy Halloween", and this is Charlotte Hatherley's first appearance with Ash. There are two covers on this promo, "What Deaner Was Talking About" (Ween) and Blew (Nirvana).
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