The Current Music Blog: September 17, 2008 Archive

The Stream 09/17/08

Posted at 9:02 AM on September 17, 2008 by Barb Abney

Johnny Rotten to become butter spokesman.

The scoop on the new Cure album.

Reveille's giving away tickets to The River Rocks Festival this weekend.

Today In Music History:
1923 - Hank Williams was born.
1931 - The first 33 and-a-third LP players were launched by RCA Victor in New York.
1950 - Fee Waybill (The Tubes) was born.
1969 - Adam Devlin (The Bluetones) was born.
1976 - The Sex Pistols played a gig for the inmates at a prison in Essex, England.
1991 - The largest shipment of new releases in pop history (over 4 million copies) of Guns N' Roses albums, Use Your Illusion 1 and Use Your Illusion 2 were simultaneously released.
1996 - A package containing a bomb, which was addressed to Bjork, was found at a South London sorting office. It was sent by Ricardo Lopez who had made a video of himself making the bomb and then killing himself.

Live Blogging 09/17/08

Posted at 9:23 AM on September 17, 2008 by Barb Abney

11:50 a.m.The Wedding Present
They're playing The Turf Club on September 29th.
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11:30 a.m. Coldplay
They're playing Excel Energy Center on November 14th.
Until then, you can follow their tour via the OXFAM blog.
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11:15 a.m. Ray LaMontagne
His latest, Gossip In The Grain will be released on October 14th.
You can pre-order it here.
He's playing The State Theater with Leona Naess on October 4th.
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11:05 a.m. Blitzen Trapper
They're playing The Turf Club on November 8th.
Furr, their Sub Pop debut (4th record overall) will be released next week.
If you pre-order it here you can get some freebies!
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10:50 a.m. Local Music - Maps Of Norway
Their Die Off Songbird CD release show is October 10th at The Turf Club with Gospel Gossip, Unicorn Basement and Strut & Shock.
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10:40 a.m. Murs
Murs For President will be out on the 30th.
He's playing 7th Street Entry on October 17th.
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10:35 a.m. Birdmonster
From The Mountain To The Sea is in stores now.
They're playing 7th Street Entry with Rumble Strips on October 23rd.
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10:30 a.m. Mike Doughty
He's playing The River Rocks Festival Saturday.
Win some tix from Reveille.
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10:25 a.m. My Morning Jacket
They're playing The Orpheum on October 2nd.
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10:20 a.m. Ben Folds
His latest, Way To Normal will be released September 30th.
He's reuniting with Ben Folds 5 for one gig tomorrow night.
He's playing The Myth Nightclub on October 17th.
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Song Of The Day Info - Death Vessel
Today on our Song Of The Day Podcast we're featuring Death Vessel with the tune "Bruno's Torso" from Nothing Is Precious Enough For Us.
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9:55 a.m. Secret Machines
They will be releasing their new album on October 14th.
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9:40 a.m. Dr. Dog
Kanye digs 'em.
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9:30 a.m. Oasis
Apparently, Noel wants his music to be considered for a future James Bond theme.

9:10 a.m. Liz Phair
Spend "An evening with Liz Phair" at First Avenue on October 4th.
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9:05 a.m. Conor Oberst
He and The Mystic Valley Band are playing First Avenue on October 29th.
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"My 3 Songs" for Wednesday

Posted at 1:35 PM on September 17, 2008 by Steve Seel

"I call this a '70s rock gods' tribute of sorts," writes Ben Allen for today's set. "It shows how pioneers in music still exist at the forefront after 30 years of ups and downs, their gigantic sphere of influence and the importance of their older works without taking anything away from their new material."

1) Brother Ali, "Uncle Sam Damn"
2) TV On the Radio, "Province"
3) Teddy Bears, "Punkrocker"

As I remarked when playing the set, Ben's meaning was clear to me for the second and third songs -- David Bowie's background-vocal contribution to "Provcince" and Iggy Pop taking the lead vocal for the Teddy Bears' tune -- but the theme wasn't immediately apparent to me on the Brother Ali track. So, I put it to the audience. Jim from St. Paul offered, via e-mail:

"Not sure of the Uncle Sam bit in Ali's song, but his set-up lifts directly from Nina Simone's 'Mississippi G**dam,' where she says 'This is a show tune but the show has been written for it.... yet.' The Simone song goes back to the early sixties when Uncle Sam was still segregated. MLK focused on Voter Registration in Mississippi, the summer of 64, after the killing of those three civil rights workers (and many others, less famous). So the show she refers to would be what would follow, and 'Mississippi G**damn' would be its tune."

Thanks Jim. Regardless of whether or not that's the connection Ben intended (I'm certinly hoping it was), that's some seriously great insight.