The Current Music Blog: December 17, 2007 Archive

The Stream 12/17/07

Posted at 8:57 AM on December 17, 2007 by Barb Abney

Fiery Furnaces, The Bravery and Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings announce more dates.

Robert Pollard records with members of Quasi and The Decemberists.

"Welcome To The Jungle" as a death threat?

Today In Music History:
1942 - Paul Butterfield was born.
1949 - Paul Rodgers (Free, Bad Company, The Firm) was born.
1959 - Bob Stinson (The Replacements) was born.
1969 - Micky Quinn (Supergrass) was born.
1977 - Elvis Costello was banned from SNL when he played "Radio Radio" after being told not to.
1982 - Big Joe Williams died.
1982 - Karen Carpenter played her last appearance with The Carpenters.
1997 - David Bowie launched BowieNet.
2004 - Lisa Marie Presley agreed to sell 85% of Elvis Presley's estate in a deal worth $100m. In the deal she retained Graceland.

Live Blogging 12/17/07

Posted at 9:49 AM on December 17, 2007 by Barb Abney (1 Comments)

11:30 a.m. Local Music - Atmosphere
Tomorrow Sad Clown Bad Winter #11 will be released.
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11:00 a.m. R.I.P. Dan Fogelberg
According to his website he passed away early yesterday morning.
Here's the "Leader Of The Band."

10:30 a.m. Local Music - Soul Asylum
They're playing First Avenue this Friday evening along with Mayda and others.
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10:15 a.m. Song Of The Day Info - Robbers On High Street
Today on our Song Of The Day Podcast we're featuring Robbers On High Street with the tune "Season's Greetings."
It's a cover of the Teri Summers & The Librettos tune from the American Song-Poem Christmas: Daddy, Is Santa Really Six Foot Four?
They've been in for In-studio appearances a couple of times. First, back in 2005 and again last July.
More....

9:45 a.m. Local Music - Gospel Gossip
The band's CD release show was this past weekend.
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9:30 a.m. M.I.A.
Apparently, "Paper Planes" will debut on MTV's TRL tonight.

9:15 a.m. Rufus Wainwright
His Valentine's Day show is the last full-band show of the Release The Stars tour.
More...

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Is The Album Dead?

Posted at 8:22 PM on December 17, 2007 by Mark Wheat (50 Comments)

At the start of this year I made the prediction that the album would die. What I meant was that the full length cd recording that we have referred to as the album for many years will no longer be necessary for a band to release in order to get attention, it won't be the focus of a band's calendar. It MIGHT remain as a conceptually connected piece of music only available on the cd format, if an artist has an idea that needs 45 minutes or more to develop or as a soundtrack for example.
For the younger audience who have been downloading their songs and making playlists for years, this was probably met with a roll of the eyes, a shrug and a "no kidding grandad!" But for us more mature music lovers this seemed like a big deal, we've been buying these things since the early 60's in one form or another, is it the end of an age and do we care?!

More and more artists are being discovered by new fans through downloads, Myspace, and TV.
Some major artists have started 'releasing' singles again like Beck's "Timebomb", Oasis' "Lord, Don't Let Me Down" and ofcourse Radiohead...how many will buy that when it finally comes out on the first day of next year? That might answer our question, until then, what do you think?
Do you still buy albums or don't you care if your fave artists never make another as long as they put new songs on the web once in awhile and tour regularly? Are we missing anything from not having the emphasis on longer pieces of work, or are we destined to have less music of higher quality?
To use the old format ideas for a little while longer...
'A-Side' of the argument...The Album is Dead
'B-Side' ...No not yet...not ever!

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