The Current Music Blog: May 29, 2009 Archive

Today In Music History: A Sad Anniversary

Posted at 6:16 AM on May 29, 2009 by Steve Seel

Birthdays:

La Toya Jackson is 53.
Noel Gallagher is 42.

1965 - The Beach Boys started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Help Me Rhonda', the groups second US No.1.
1971 - Three dozen Grateful Dead fans were treated for hallucinations caused by LSD after they unwittingly drank spiked apple juice served at a gig at San Francisco's Winterland.
1975 - Fans rioted when The Osmonds appeared at London's Wembley Pool.
1977 - Manchester band Warsaw (later to become Joy Division) made their live debut supporting The Buzzcocks at The Electric Circus, Manchester, England.
1991 - After just completing the recording of the 'Nevermind' album, Nirvana played a last-minute show at the Jabberjaw in Los Angeles. In the audience was Iggy Pop and L7 bassist Jennifer Finch, who brought along her best friend Courtney Love.
1992 - Concerned that some pupils were "overly identifying" with Freddie Mercury, the Sacred Heart School in Clifton New Jersey decided not to sing the Queen song 'We Are The Champions', at their Graduation Ceremony.

A very sad anniversary today: it was on this day in 1997 singer songwriter Jeff Buckley disappeared after taking a swim in the Mississippi River. His body was found on June 4th 1997 after being spotted by a passenger on a tourist riverboat. A new collection of recordings is being released on Tuesday, documenting his live performances of all the tunes on his debut CD Grace, plus a DVD documentary of his life and career (The Current will be giving you chances all next week to win your own copy, by the way). Today, a gorgeous tune from Grace highlighting Buckley's one-of-a-kind singing voice: "Lilac Wine."

Maria Isa is giving you some Street Politics for free!

Posted at 10:11 AM on May 29, 2009 by Barb Abney

We're featuring local music from Maria Isa today on our Song Of The Day podcast. You can grab the tune "Image" from her latest record, Street Politics for free!

Catch Maria Isa on The Local Show with David Campbell this Sunday evening at 6:00 p.m.

The Street Politics CD release show is next Friday at First Avenue.

If you're a new subscriber to the Song Of The Day podcast, you'll also receive new music from Death, Maximo Park, Passion Pit and Illinois.

More Maria Isa...

O Karen ... And Joan, and Grace, and Chrissie ...

Posted at 10:55 AM on May 29, 2009 by Steve Seel

In honor of tomorrow night's sold-out Yeah Yeah Yeahs show at First Ave, today's topic on the 9:30 Coffee Break was not just female lead singers, but specifically, awesome lead singers for bands who's remaining members are all guys. Thanks for all the suggestions! We played:

1) Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, "I Hate Myself For Lovin' You"
2) Rilo Kiley, "Portions For Foxes"
3) Jefferson Airplane, "Somebody To Love"
4) Garbage, "Special"
5) The Pretenders, "Talk Of the Town"
6) Blondie, "Hangin' On the Telephone"

Yup, six songs! So sue us for going overboard again today.

Random Vinyl: Week of 5/26-5/29

Posted at 11:04 AM on May 29, 2009 by Steve Seel

Every weekday at 6:30 a.m., Jill and I sift through our vinyl collections and play a randomly chosen track. Here's this week's installment (we were off on Monday, for Memorial Day).

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Tuesday: Merle Haggard, "The Best of Merle Haggard"
An early greatest hits collection that came out before he'd recorded some of his bigger later tunes, but still a fun record. We played "The Bottle Let Me Down."

Wednesday: Sonny & Cher, "Look At Us"
Sonny & Cher dropped the "Caesar and Cleo" act and scored their first hit song with "I Got You Babe" on the 1965 release "Look At Us". They cover a few tunes on this record as well, including the Phil Spector, Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry penned tune, "Then He Kissed Me". It just so happens that Sonny used to work for Phil Spector as a promotions guy and gofer. Where else would you have heard Sonny & Cher's version of "Then He Kissed Me" on the radio? Complete with surface noise... that's what Random Vinyl is all about.

Thursday: Iron Butterfly, "In A Gadda Da Vida"
We could've played the very well-known title track for 17 minutes, but opted to choose something from side A. "Most Anything You Want" (with a whole lotta scratches, pops and cracks) is more music so psychadelic, it birthed heavy metal.

Friday: Pete Townshend, "Empty Glass"
An amazing solo record from the point where Pete seems to have stopped giving his good stuff to The Who and instead saving it just for himself. "Rough Boys" is a masterpiece, and an aging rocker's response to punk rock - Pete dedicated the tune in part to The Sex Pistols.

(note: due to technical circumstances too boring to go into, the audio stream above is missing the Pete Townshend tune; check back with us here on the blog on Monday and we should have this fixed).

The really boring audio issue has been fixed, and the Pete Townshend song is now there.