Fresh Eye on the Radio: Clues

Posted at 6:02 PM on November 6, 2009 by Bob Collins (0 Comments)

Clues always look obvious after the fact. Declining personal debt: Good or bad? The case of the stolen VW van. And babies who cry like their mothers. Those are among the week-end components of the daily discussion with Bob Collins and Mary Lucia.

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Flyin' the Flannel

Posted at 12:07 PM on November 6, 2009 by Michael Wells (0 Comments)

It's been 20 years since the release of Nirvana's debut Bleach.

Seriously. 20 Years.

Anyway, we decided to celebrate this weekend with your chance to win a copy of the remastered/reissued version. Just listen and be the tenth caller all weekend. There's other reasons to listen as well: You'll hear music from bands like Mudhoney, Pearl Jam, Screaming Trees, Babes in Toyland, Firehose, and more - as we're Flyin' the Flannel.

So what do you think about the last 20 years?

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Random Vinyl 11/2-11/6

Posted at 11:57 AM on November 6, 2009 by Jill Riley (0 Comments)
Filed under: Random Vinyl

Monday: Emerson, Lake & Palmer, "Emerson, Lake & Palmer" (1971-US release) Keith Emerson plays the best Moog Synthesizer solo ever at the end of the Greg Lake penned tune, "Lucky Man." We even played it on Emerson's birthday.

Tuesday: Rolling Stones, "Their Satanic Majesties Request" (1967)
In response to The Beatles, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," The Rolling Stones went psychedelic with this record. The album cover even resembles "Sgt. Pepper's." We played "2000 Light Years From Home." If you have this LP, make sure to check out the crazy hidden track ("Cosmic Christmas") after "Sing This All Together (See What Happens)." It's a trip. All in all, The Stones do some really cool work on this record, but it's really the only time they would dive into the world of psychedelic rock.

Wednesday: Roxy Music, "Flesh And Blood" (1980)
By the time Roxy Music arrived at their penultimate record, they were already quite a distance from the pulsating urgency of "Do The Strand" and "Love Is The Drug" and sinking ever deeper into the late-night candelabra-vibe that would make their final album, "Avalon," one of the staples of early '80s New Romantic suave'. We played the single "Oh Yeah," and also a few seconds of the album's cover of "Eight Miles High," which is just bizarre.

Thursday: Tammy Wynette, "Greatest Hits" (1969)
The song "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" is almost a testament to what Tammy Wynette's soap opera life was. She experienced her share of heartache from her mother abandoning her, all her failed marriages (including her most famous marriage and divorce from George Jones), painkiller addiction and other health problems. She was known as the First Lady of Country Music, a title she wore well.

Friday: Janis Joplin, "Pearl" (1971)
Janis Joplin's untimely death due to a heroin overdose meant she would never see the release of this album. It was released a few months after she died. At the time of this record, she had the Full Tilt Boogie Band backing her up. An instrumental was included on the album and it's only an instrumental because Joplin died before she could record the vocals. It was called "Buried Alive in the Blues." Ironic?

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Friday Coffee Break: Hidden Tracks

Posted at 8:44 AM on November 6, 2009 by Steve Seel (36 Comments)
Filed under: 9:30 Coffee Break

(updated below)

Step right up and lend us your requests for today's topic: hidden tracks is the subject of today's 9:30 Coffee Break. Examples can include CD or vinyl, or even tracks that became so popular that they became "un-hidden" on subsequent pressings of the album. Leave your suggestings below, or here.

Update: Thanks for your suggestions, which covered a wide variey of hidden track types:

1) The Clash, "Train In Vain"
2) The Beatles, "Her Majesty"
3) R.E.M., "Superman"
4) The Rolling Stones, "Untitled (from Her Majesty's Satanic Request)
5) Green Day, "All By Myself"
6) Atmosphere, "Say Shhh..."

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Today In Music History: What Would You Say If I Sang Out Of Tune?

Posted at 6:08 AM on November 6, 2009 by Steve Seel (3 Comments)
Filed under: Music History

Birthdays:

Glenn Frey of The Eagles is 61.
Corey Glover of Living Colour is 45.

Today in:

1967 - During a three hour session Bob Dylan recorded "All Along The Watchtower" and "John Wesley Harding" at Columbia Recording Studios in Nashville, Tennessee.
1970 - Aerosmith performed their first ever gig when they played at Nipmuc Regional High School in Mendon, Massachusetts.
1973 - Singer Gram Parsons' manager, Phil Kaufman, was fined $300 for stealing Parsons' body from the Los Angeles International Airport. The body was cremated instead of being taken to Parsons' funeral. Kaufman claimed that it was Parsons' wish to be cremated.
1975 - The Sex Pistols played their first concert, at a London art school dance. Ten minutes into it, the school social programmer unplugged their amps.

Music history highlight:

Today in 1968, Joe Cocker was at No.1 in the UK singles chart with his version of The Beatles song "With A Little Help From My Friends". Cocker's rendition of this song became one of his signature tunes (not to mention a target for easy parody by the likes of John Belushi in his awesome Joe Cocker impersonation).

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Collins and Lucia

Posted at 8:04 PM on November 5, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

Good, nobody seems to be around. So I'm sneaking in here to tell you that the afternoon conversation between Mary Lucia and Bob Collins (me) is being posted online on MPR's News Cut.

As humans, when we don't know the full details of a story, we fill in the blanks. Several stories in the news today provide an example. That's the subject of today's discussion, which you can find here.

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11-05-09 Top 20

Posted at 5:33 PM on November 5, 2009 by Mark Wheat (2 Comments)
Filed under: The Chart Show

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Thursday Coffee Break: Bands That Survived A Change Of Lead Singer

Posted at 8:50 AM on November 5, 2009 by Steve Seel (26 Comments)
Filed under: 9:30 Coffee Break

That's the topic for today's 9:30 Coffee Break. Notice that all we said was survived (we didn't say that they necessarily prospered). Of course, there are tons of classic rock examples (Journey, anyone?), but we need your help to come up with a broad swath of choices here today. Chime in below, or here. Can't wait for your suggestions.

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Weezer: Now With Twice The "Meta"

Posted at 7:51 AM on November 5, 2009 by Steve Seel (2 Comments)

As a number of observers (our own Mac Wilson included) have noted, Weezer only seems to get more ironically detached with each passing year, to the point that you genuinely have no idea if there's a sincere gesture left in them. Their new CD, Raditude, has plenty of this kind of stuff in it (a duet with Lil' Wayne?), but this week, we also got:

First this - a performance featuring a guest appearance by Kenny G:

Then this:

The second one is apparently real, by the way.

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Today In Music History: Saluting The Grievous Angel

Posted at 6:12 AM on November 5, 2009 by Steve Seel (2 Comments)
Filed under: Music History

Birthdays:

Art Garfunkel is 68.
Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits is 62.
Bryan Adams is 50.
Guitarist Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead is 38.
Ryan Adams is 35.

Today in:

1956 - "The Nat King Cole Show" debuted on NBC-TV. The Cole program was the first of its kind hosted by an African-American.
1966 - The Monkees went to No.1 on US singles chart with "Last Train To Clarksville", the group's first No.1. They revealed during a press conference that no members of the group had played on the record.
1971 - Elvis Presley kicked off a 15-date North American tour at the Metropolitan Sports Center in Minneapolis. Announcer Al Dvorin uttered the well known phrase: "Elvis has left the building" at the end of the show. He was asked to make the announcement in an effort to quiet the fans who continued to call for an encore.
1995 - Producer Butch Vig's new band Garbage made their US live debut when they played at The 7th Street Entry.

Today's history highlight:

Singer songwriter Gram Parsons was born on this day in 1946. Parsons was a Member of The International Submarine Band, The Byrds, and The Flying Burrito Brothers, and had his own influential, if short-lived, solo career, with two studio albums to his credit: "G.P." and "Return Of The Greivous Angel." He died on 19th September 1973 from a heroin overdose at age 26. Since his death, his music has been credited with inspiring the genres of country rock and alt-country. This morning we honored him by playing "Return of the Greivous Angel."

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