The Current Music Blog: June 9, 2009 Archive

Tunes On The Telly Tonight: (June 9)

Posted at 1:00 PM on June 9, 2009 by Barb Abney

BonnieRaitt & Taj Mahal on Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien
Mos Def on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon
Green Day on Last Call With Carson Daly
Black Eyed Peas on The Late Show with David Letterman
Blink 182 on Jimmy Kimmel Live

Today In Music History: One of Rock's True Forefathers

Posted at 6:18 AM on June 9, 2009 by Steve Seel

1934 - Soul singer Jackie Wilson, US soul singer, was born. He suffered a heart attack on stage at a New Jersey Club in 1975 and was in a coma until he died on January 21st 1984.
1947 - Mitch Mitchell, drummer with the Jimi Hendrix Experience, was born. Mitchell was found dead in his US hotel room on 12th Nov 2008 aged 61.
1972 - Bruce Springsteen signed with Columbia Records and started to assemble the E Street Band from various Asbury Park ex-band mates.
1990 - M.C. Hammer's debut album started a record breaking 21 week stay at the top of the US album charts, making it the longest uninterrupted stay at the top since the album charts started.
1994 - After an argument TLC singer Left Eye set fire to her boyfriend's Atlanta mansion, worth $2 million, burning it to the ground. She was charged with arson and fined $10,000 with five years probation.
1998 - Oasis singer Liam Gallagher and Simply Red singer Mick Hucknall were involved in a brawl at The Metropolitan Hotel, London.

Guitarist Les Paul, inventor of the Gibson Les Paul electric guitar, is 94 today. He also pioneered multi-track recording, "close miking" and the first electronic echo delay. It's been said that his invention of the solid-body electric guitar "made the sound of rock n' roll possible." Fun fact about Les: In 1948 he broke his right arm in a car accident and had it set at an angle so he could still play guitar.

Les Paul had a number of hits with his wife, singer Mary Ford. Today though, we played an instrumental track highlighting Paul's unique playing style as well as his multi-track recording innovations - his version of "San Antonio Rose."

Neil Young Daily Deconstruction: Day #1 Answer

Posted at 8:17 AM on June 9, 2009 by Steve Seel

Yesterday was the first day of our week-long Neil Young Daily Deconstruction, where we invite you to guess the identity of the Neil Young album cover that we'd photoshopped to exlude certain key elements. Everyone correctly guessing all five albums will be entered in a drawing to win a copy of the amazing new Neil Young Archives Vol. 1 Blu-Ray box set, which is our CD of the Week this week.

Monday's Deconstruction:

These probably won't be terribly hard for anyone who's a fan of Neil's work:

Neil Young and Crazy Horse: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere

Enter Tuesday's contest right here!

Grab "best new music" for free...

Posted at 9:05 AM on June 9, 2009 by Barb Abney

Earlier today, Pitchfork posted their review of the new Dirty Projectors album, Bitte Orca. They gave it a rating of 9.2 and called it "best new music." The Brooklyn 6-piece are currently out on the road with TV On The Radio.

Today on our Song Of The Day podcast we're featuring the Dirty Projectors tune "Stillness Is The Move" for free!

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

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

3 songs to help you escape...

Posted at 9:32 AM on June 9, 2009 by Barb Abney
Filed under: My Three Songs

Adina Cohen from Santa Rosa, California picked today's My 3 Songs set because...

"Escape, they are pure Escape."

The National - "Fake Empire"
Bon Iver - "Skinny Love"
Sigur Ros - "Von"

Make your "My 3 Songs" requests here.

Great Rock n' Roll Mishaps

Posted at 10:51 AM on June 9, 2009 by Steve Seel (2 Comments)

Boy howdy, we had fun this morning putting together the 9:30 Coffee Break. That must mean that Jill and I are a couple of cruel, heartless sadists, because our topic today - inspired by Brett Michaels' clothes-lining by a piece of stage scenery at the Tony Awards - was great injuries in rock n' roll history.

A qualifying mishap, pratfall or face-plant could be onstage or off, and we showcased both in our final selections. Seriously, we couldn't stop giggling like pre-teens as we read your entries today. We're sick.

The set:

1) Michael Jackson, "Beat It" - That's right, we had to start with the man whose hair pomade was set on fire by stray explosives during the filming of a Pepsi commercial in the early 80s. As one listener wrote in, "that's what you get for selling out."

2) Nirvana, "Lithium" - This was the song the band played during the 1992 MTV Music Awards when bassist Krist Novoselic threw his bass high in the air in frustration (after his amp stopped working), and then failed to catch it. Or rather, he caught it - with his head. Live TV injuries are always awesome.

3) Johnny Cash, "Hurt" - Sorry, very sick joke. Johnny was attacked by an ostrich (!) on his farm during the 1980s. The incident precipitated his re-addiction to painkillers. That part's not funny. But any injury involving an ostrich just is, by definition.

4) The Who, "The Seeker" - You get two injuries for the price of one here (three if you count Pete Townsend's overall deafness due to years of stage explosives, but we won't). Pete's famous injury came while doing his trademark windmill move on his guitar, and, mis-judging where his hand should come down across the strings, impaled it on the whammy-bar instead. Owwwww. Next, a listener reminded us that (speaking of explosives), Keith Moon had his drums loaded with them for the band's performance on The Smothers Brothers variety show, and when they went off, Keith was blown off the riser (and even ended up with pieces of drum-shrapnel in his arm). I am still laughing about that one even as I type this.

I'm not sure how we managed to get through today's topic without more than a passing mention of Keith Richards falling out of a palm tree and landing on his head, but maybe next time ...

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