The Current Music Blog: June 8, 2009 Archive

Today In Music History: Nobody Gonna Take My Gear

Posted at 7:21 AM on June 8, 2009 by Steve Seel

Birthdays:

Nancy Sinatra is 69.
Boz Scaggs is 65.
Nick Rhodes (keyboards, Duran Duran) is 47.
Kayne West is 32.

1965 - Rob Pilatus, "vocals," Milli Vanilli, was born. He died of a drug and alcohol overdose on April 2nd 1998.
1954 - US record labels started to supply radio stations with 45rpm discs for the first time, replacing the 78 records.
1967 - The Beatles 'Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' went to No.1 in the UK. Costing $42,500 to produce, the album was recorded over 700 hours of studio time. It was also the first album to print the lyrics on the sleeve. The album spent 27 weeks at No.1 on the UK chart.
1974 - Paul McCartney and Wings went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Band On The Run', McCartney's third solo US No.1.
1985 - Tears For Fears started a two-week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with 'Everybody Wants To Rule The World', the groups first US No.1.
1989 - At a Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior's press conference, vegetarian Chrissie Hynde claimed that she once firebombed a McDonalds restaurant. The following day a McDonalds in England was firebombed and Hynde was threatened with legal action.
1991 - Extreme went to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'More Than Words.'

Today in 1970, Deep Purple had their van and equipment impounded by East German police while on an European tour, after mistakenly driving too close to the border. "Highway Star" is the obvious choice to play for this occasion.

Free music for you to spread via "word of mouth."

Posted at 10:16 AM on June 8, 2009 by Barb Abney

Viva Voce can be translated as "by word of mouth." Today on our Song Of The Day podcast we're featuring the Portland, Oregon band, Viva Voce. Their latest record, Rose City came out last month. You can grab the title track for free!

If you're a new subscriber to the Song Of The Day podcast, you'll also receive new music from The Alarmists, John Vanderslice, Akron/Family and Superchunk.

Later this week we will be featuring new music from Dirty Projectors, Jarvis Cocker, Polly Scattergood and local music from Solid Gold.

Follow Viva Voce on Twitter.

3 songs to help get you through the day...

Posted at 11:26 AM on June 8, 2009 by Barb Abney
Filed under: My Three Songs

Erica Doran from Apple Valley picked today's My 3 Songs set because...

"Some days I need fancy footwork in the morning to get one pure thought at work before its lights out at home."

Chromeo - "Fancy Footwork"
Hot Chip - "One Pure Thought"
Santigold - "Lights Out"

Make your "My 3 Songs" requests here.

Bret Michaels Funny

Posted at 12:14 PM on June 8, 2009 by Jill Riley (5 Comments)

In case you need a dose of gut busting laughter... it's extra funny if you play it over and over again.

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Jeff Hanson on The Current

Posted at 11:16 AM on June 8, 2009 by Steve Seel (1 Comments)

As was announced Friday, Twin Cities based singer-songwriter Jeff Hanson died late last week after a tragic accident in his St. Paul apartment - apparently from a fall. Details are still coming in. But his label, Kill Rock Stars, issued a statement on Saturday that included this comment (via):

"Jeff Hanson was an amazing artist, a riotously funny person, and a good friend. Everyone at Kill Rock Stars feels that we were privileged to put out his records. We will miss him tremendously. Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this time."

Bill DeVille entered the first blog post here at The Current on Saturday afternoon, and some truly nice comments have already come in. If you have memories of any kind to share about Jeff and/or his music, we invite you to chime in there.

This morning, Jill and I aired a performance by Jeff for our Live Current track of the day - one dating from April of 2005 (as you can see by the date, Jeff was one of our earliest guests on the station). On that day, he was welcomed by Mark Wheat, and Jeff made a request that I've never seen made before or since: that we dim the studio lights until they were almost off for his on-air performance. It was like making radio by candlelight, and it was indeed a perfect setting for Jeff's uniquely ethereal brand of music. We played Jeff performing "Now We Know" from that session.

It wasn't Jeff's only in-studio performance here, though: back in August, he was Dave Campbell's live guest for an edition of The Local Show, where he performed some more recent tunes from his CD Madam Owl. Check out that performance and interview here (scroll down to the August 17 2008 show).

Words pretty much fail us right now. Our sincerest condolences go out to Jeff's family and friends. A creator of stunningly lovely songs has been silenced.

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A Little Mascara ...

Posted at 1:00 PM on June 8, 2009 by Steve Seel (2 Comments)

Dovetailing with Nick Rhodes' birthday today (see Today in Music History, below), we asked for songs by guys who like to wear makeup today for the 9:30 Coffee Break. "Guy-liner" ... rouge, mascara, lipstick, al that. Extra points for beauty marks. Your faves:

1) Adam and The Ants, "Stand and Deliver"
2) New York Dolls, "Personality Crisis"
3) The Cure, "Jumping Someone Else's Train"
4) David Bowie, "Life On Mars"

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