Allow Page To Load & Discover Mp3 Musique du Jour Patronizingly Posted By A Demented Denizen Of The Left Coast
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While that was entertaining on all the tv sets around town, including the sushi bar in Little Tokyo where I grabbed some dinner, other less retarded entertainemnt abounds of course. As I left town my focus was more on the free outdoor street festival on Grand featuring Dengue Fever & Ozomatli, while across town in West Hollywood Joan Jett was tearing it up outdoors at the Pride festival...
here's some sample tracks from those afforementioned musical artists
Folks in Minneapolis have reason to rejoice, or at least Prince fans...as the Purple one plans a return for his record release on July 7th, his first show in his hometown since 2004...
Prince fan Gwen Stefani's tour has been a bit cursed, first a report of provactive dancing by opening act Akon with young female fans caused controversy, causing Verizon to drop out of it's million dollar sponsorship deal...
Then when Stefani's show hit Holmdel New Jersey, apparently the sh*t was B-A-N-a-N-a-S as fans had a wilder time than anticipated with reports of much underage drinking etc, and suburban police were caught off guard...
Here's some music from that dangerous crowd rousing diva & mom, Gwen Stefani mashed into Miles Davis...
Meanwhile, speaking of divas Barbara Streisand had to cancel a Rome concert on her first European tour, as Italianns had begun protesting the exhorbitant ticket prices babs and her tour organizers sought. She may wow 'em at Caesar's in las Vegas, but not in Caesar's hometown...
and meanwhile closer to my hometown, a bowling alley has garnered more attention than any big name acts or shows...
sheesh
Frank Black has a new double disc release coming out via Cooking Vinyl this coming week, it highlights the 10 year period from 1993 - 2003. This look at his post Pixies solo career features tracks from the albums he created with his backing band The Catholics and some live material including a cover of the Jan & Dean song "Dead Man's Curve". It also includes previews of material that will reappear on his next solo album as Francis Black. Here's one of the tracks to be featured...
Tuesday as you may have realized, is Paul McCartney's first as an indie act...
At least since the Beatles were on Vee-Jay briefly stateside in the early 60's...
He even played a record release party at a small-ish 500 head venue called the Electric Ballroom in London to celebrate the occasion
Of course his indie label is owned by Starbucks...so that's not exactly selling discs from the truck of a car...
I was looking around on Emusic today and noticed that they had got on the new Paul McCartney album release bandwagon as well today...
No $16 digi-pack CD , but high bitrate DRM free mp3s, the whole album for about what a drink at Starbucks sets ya back...while I-Tunes is jacking .99 a song, and is not offering this release DRM free go figger...
The album is produced by David Kahne, who brought you Sublime's major label debut 10 years back that had the "What I Got" single. Kahne has also worked on hits for Sugar Ray, Tony Bennett, Cher, Shawn Colvin, Bruce Springsteen, The Bangles, Fishbone, The Strokes, Sean Lennon and got his start as a producer at SF's Hyde Street Studios, and at 415 Records.
My fave Mac track so far was the short lil' howling rabble rouser tacked onto the end
I got on the bandwagon a bit late for Cheap Trick's 40th anniversary Tribute to the Beatles Sgt Pepper's album...
All the good up front, & box type seats were taken, so here's my bench seat at the Hollywood Bowl this August. I'm sure I'll be fine with it...
I'm really excited to see the Sgt Pepper album performed live, and figure who needs Paul McCartney, when ya got Robin Zander. I'd post some Cheap Trick doing stuff from Sgy Pepper but it looks like I've got them doing Daytripper, Magical Mystery Tour, John Lennon's Cold Turkey and just can't find anything from Rockford's finest from the Beatles landmark psychedelic '67 masterpiece...
so here get these instead...
First my 7 yr old niece singing Strawberyy Fields Forever with the Ventures
Looks like CBS has bought music "scrobbler" Last.FM for about $280 million, or almost $19 per user...
I wonder if they just wanted to bury an online service called Last.fm that's mere name could be suggesting their numerous terrestrial FM properties are living a lie and dying in a haze of faded glory.
I ain't a super duper big fan of Apple and their latest asinine "I Tunes Plus" money gouge announcement about dumping an additional 30 cents per track their way. These "upgrades" are the ability just to use the song how you want, or get it in some higher bitrate resolution. Apparently it's a glitchy software trap cuz either you upgrade all your songs at once for an additional 30 cents, or you'll have to repay for them. Another bogus feature is that once you set your preference settings for $1.29 tracks, you will no longer be offered the .99 cent versions. Plus the 256kb so-called "DRM Free"songs are actually embedded by Steve Jobs minions with your name, email address and other tracking info. In fact the Electronic Freedom Foundation found additional info embedded in the files. EFF theorizes that there might be "
large amounts of iTunes library data
" present in every one of those files. And Ars Technica adds that Apple maybe
"has watermarked the AAC encoding itself so that it would be significantly harder for users to anonymize themselves from the files after purchasing."
All in all this clumsy conspiratorial cash grab simply doesn't surprise me... not from the great Jobs, Cupertino's evil Turtle necked reality distortion field bearer.
And to think I wasted several hours this week attempting to download what covert art I could and get my cover art flow views looking all nice when i shoulda just deleted the whole lousy piece of infernal spy & slimeware...oh wait, I own an Ipod that I received as a gift last year and am therefore trapped like millions of others using this interface... never mind...
Let's get on with the music, not the software...
First up...Emusic the great legal indie download service has a free Ian Hunter track up today til about midnight, so get it now... Ian is freaking 68 and even if was just watching Home Shopping Network while sipping Starbucks...he's naturally still rocking way harder than Sir Paul McCartney ever did, especially now that he's shilling for those brands. Plus ex-Hoopler Ian operates on a fraction of the budget, with ten times the street cred...
the song is from his new Yep Roc album "Shrunken Heads"
Technically, ya probably have to be a member to get on the list for this treat...but I think you might be able to take advantage of this daily offer from outside the wall... Ian Hunter - Words ( Big Mouth)
and if i did work, ya might consider the risk free 25 free downloads offer, I took advantage of it last year. Of course I'm such a sucker I did last year, and I'm still hooked on Emusic like crack... but generally happier than a clam. Hey it's only $10 a month, and I get about 4 albums worth of tunes of my choice for that pittance.
Unlike I Tunes, you don't need any specially authorized software, and everything comes at ya in DRM free mp3, for less 30 cents a tune, not a lame 30 cent upgrade...
I'm sure I'll be finding lots of good stuff coming my way this month there, but let's review what went down recently...
I know it hasn't really gotten too hot yet... but Summertime is on it's way, so i'm tossing in a few potental summertime playlist faves fer yer perusal...
As May fades away I do note that it's been a good month for music archiving and purchasing tunes fer moi I suppose...
Been sinking my ears lately into all sorts of cool turf & terrain...
In addition to recent revelations I've been digging like The Mains, Avett Brothers, and Teddybears...I'm always digging in the crates and looking up new finds & friendliness in the depths of the wayback machine. I recently bought a buncha everything from classic old Roger Troutman, Howard Tate, Doug Kershaw, Betty Davis, Bad Brains, Louis Prima and Dave Clark 5 tracks & releases to brand new stuff from old faves like Tim Armstrong, Detroit Cobras, Bebel Gilberto, Mavis Staples and Maria McKee.
I guess I could just skip the hyperbole, and let ya inspect the Mog account
Before I hit a kegger on Friday, I stopped by a Virgin MegaStore on Market that was still open at around 11:00 pm to stock up on party gifts. Of course I got selfish and spent money on my own choices as well, especially when I saw import copies of Amy Winehouse's debut CD Frank onsale for less than the usual $27.00. Then I grabbed a Fairport Convention DBL CD Import I saw on sale, a Transplants CD single, and a couple copies of Way Out by Seattle rapper's Nocturnal Rage and tossed in a copy of a new Motown remixes set ...
Here's a track from a few of those selections for those who are still paying attention...
and some links to other recent releases you shouldn't pass up...
anyhow...
I already had a version of Amy Winehouse performing this cut from some sort of AOL Sessions that was included as a B-side on the F*ck Me Pumps CD5 I got last year, but I'm just too charmed by the ol' static charged ol' vinyl record sound herein to pass up this version...
Amy Winehouse - (There Is) No Greater Love If yer desperate to get more here's a link to order the import version for about $16.00 at last look
and if ya wanna wait...Amy's US label is crawling at a snail's pace and likely to get Frank out here by late September, a link to preorder it is provided here for about $11.00
Now if yer digging the Winehouse sound, then either yer already a fan of ol 60's soul & pop, or ya need to be getting down with it...
No better place to start that appreciation than with Martha & The Vandellas, and if yer looking for summer fun... then why not a rollicking remix of this Detroit girl group with a lil' Miami flava. While I wasn't enasmored with every reinterpretation on Motown remixed Vol 2, this one gives this Holland, Dozier, Holland classic composistion some seriously salsafied tico tico traction...
Motown Remixed Vol. 2 CD which just came out this year is an electro-latinized collection...and the whole thang is full of fresh reworkings of some ol' Motown chestnuts. This one here is a remix by David Elizondo that I could imagine kicking up dust on dancefloors from East LA to Northern Spain...
I imagine it could be a good addition to yer sizzling summer soundtrack, and it's onsale online for download...or delivered to yer door in a digi-pak for about $12.00...
Speaking of Summertime, I don't suppose you'll need Joan Jett getting down with Eddie Cochran's Summertime Blues in yer speakers will ya?
Well If Ya do...it's right here, recorded at the old Media Sound studios in New York circa 1981 at the request of late Casablanca prez Neil Bogart...
And if yer idea of a party involves hair farming & seriously smoking guitar & other righteous combustibles...
The Hellacopters from Sweden are always a joy to behold in the boombox...
Here's a cut from a Hellacopters sorta not so greatest hits record that Gearhead finally issued digitally awhile back for all the onliners out there that no longer buy music on CD...
Follow the links I've painstakingly provided if you want the rest of these tracks either as downloads or on CD, cuz there's lots more to get...
The Pipettes are apparently on tour this summer in the US and doing some dates back home in the UK, and various European metro zones, some of which look entirely unfamiliar to me as well.
Looks like my chance to catch the Pipettes will be at The Rickshaw Stop on June 12 in San Francisco, as apparently Popscene is moving it's location to this club as well. Perhaps i'll go more now that it's no longer in a former bathhouse on the far side of nowhere down south of market...
June
1 - Lee's Palace Toronto, Ontario 2 - Black Cat Washington, Washington DC 3 - First Unitarian Church Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 3 - Mars RED Music (instore acoustic + signing) Haddonfield, New Jersey 4 - Great Scott Boston, Massachusetts 5 - Highline Ballroom New York, New York 5 - Other Music (instore acoustic + signing) NEW YORK, New York 7 - Empty Bottle Chicago, Illinois 8 - 7th Street Entry Minneapolis, Minnesota 10 - Casbah San Diego, California 11 - Troubadour Los Angeles, California 12 - Popscene @ Rickshaw Stop San Francisco, California 14 - Chop Suey Seattle, Washington 15 - Plaza Club Vancouver, British Columbia 19 - Shrewsbury Music Hall (benefit for Cancer Research) Shrewsbury 23 - Glastonbury Festival
July
6 - Ruisrock Festival Turku 8 - T In The Park 10 - Lake Festival Nr Klagenfurt 11 - Poolbar Festival Nr Feldkirch 20 - Gurten Festival Berne 21 - Pohoda Festival Bratislava 22 - Benicassim 28 - Storsjoyran Festival Ostersund
August
4 - Electric Garden Festival Kent 9 - Liquid Rooms Tokyo 11 - Summersonic - Marine Stadium Tokyo 12 - Summersonic Osaka 24 - Reading Festival 25 - Leeds Festival
Here's a track recorded live on an XFM broadcast in 2005
Here's something else poppy that popped up on my radar, a midwest noise pop duo called Coltrane Motion who've put out a new release this week entitled Songs About Music.
While the best title so far was "Ex-Girlfriend In A Coma", of the ones I've heard, this one seemed like my fave so far...
Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at eMusic
Stream from Rhapsody
More On This Album
If yer desperate to get more here's a link to order the import version for about 
Buy at 
