The Current Music Blog: June 11, 2009 Archive

Today In Music History: God Save The Queen

Posted at 6:42 AM on June 11, 2009 by Steve Seel

Birthdays:

Frank Beard (drums, ZZ Top) is 60.

1966 - European radio stations mistakenly report that The Who's lead singer Roger Daltrey is dead. Actually, it was guitarist Pete Townshend who had been injured in a car accident a few days earlier.
Also 1966 - Janis Joplin performed with Big Brother and the Holding Company for the first time in San Francisco.
1968 - Working at Abbey Road studios in London on The White Album, John Lennon worked on 'Revolution 9' in studio 3, while Paul McCartney recorded 'Blackbird' in studio 2.
1969 - David Bowie released "Space Oddity" as a single, to coincide with the first lunar landing.
1976 - Wild Cherry released "Play That Funky Music."
1978 - The Rolling Stones released the album "Some Girls,"
which caused controversy because of raunchy lyrics in the title song.
1977 - KC and the Sunshine Band became only the second group after The Jackson Five to achieve four US No.1's when 'I'm Your Boogie Man' went to the top of the charts.
2004 - Courtney Love surrendered to US police after allegedly assaulting a woman at the home of her former manager and ex-boyfriend. Ms Love was charged with assault with a deadly weapon. She was later released on bail. The charges related to an incident on 25 April 2004, when Ms Love allegedly assaulted a woman with a bottle and a torch at the LA home of Jim Barber.

Today in 1977, as Britain celebrated the Queen's Silver Jubilee, The Sex Pistols reached No. 2 in the singles chart with 'God Save The Queen'.

Neil Young Daily Deconstruction: Day #3 Answer

Posted at 8:23 AM on June 11, 2009 by Steve Seel

Time for the answer to day three 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.

Wednesday's Deconstruction:

And the answer:
Harvest

Proclaiming his intentions with "Are You Ready for the Country?" Young detoured briefly to the Nashville mainstream. On this No. 1 1972 album, even the singer's acquired-taste voice comes across smooth and beautiful--the smash "Heart of Gold," with steel guitars and Linda Ronstadt's backup vocals, is by far Young's most commercial-sounding song. His usual dissonant touches, like the otherworldly guitar in "Out on the Weekend," are less spooky in this new context. The last two tracks, the deceptively gentle "The Needle and the Damage Done" and the hypnotic rocker "Words (Between the Lines of Age)," predict "Tonight's the Night," Young's haunted 1975 classic. --Steve Knopper

Enter Thursday's contest right here!

Free music from the U.K.

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

Polly Scattergood is a British artist who is sometimes compared to Amy Winehouse and Kate Nash, who are both fellow Brit School alumni.

Her debut album, Polly Scattergood was released last month. Today on our Song Of The Day podcast we're featuring the tune "Please Don't Touch" for free!

If you're a new subscriber to the Song Of The Day podcast, you'll also receive new music from Jarvis Cocker, Dirty Projectors, Viva Voce and The Alarmists. Tomorrow we will be featuring local music from Solid Gold.

Learn more about Polly here.

3 "after the rain" tunes...

Posted at 12:34 PM on June 11, 2009 by Barb Abney
Filed under: My Three Songs

Elizabeth Reed from Minneapolis picked today's My 3 Songs set because...

"These three songs are all very mellow and lately with our rainy weather have been playing on my ipod a lot."

Feist and Ben Gibbard - "Train Song"
Jose Gonzalez - "Down The Line"
Gary Louris and Mark Olson - "Turn Your Pretty Name Around"

Make your "My 3 Songs" requests here.

* please note that I didn't make a Nelson joke until the very end of this post.

Personae Non Grata

Posted at 11:08 AM on June 11, 2009 by Steve Seel (1 Comments)

Who are the people you love to hate in music? That was the topic of today's 9:30 Coffee Break. As Jill said, "you know, like someone who may or may not have broken up The Beatles."

The antipathy was flowin' today for the following:

1) Ike and Tina Turner, "River Deep, Mountain High" - Alex from Brooklyn wrote in, "Special 2-for-1 felony fest! Ike 'spousal abuse' Turner produced by Phil 'The gun went off by itself' Spector!"

2) Hole, "Violet" - Few rock personalities seem to inspire as much venom as Courtney Love. We witnessed plenty on the phones and in e-mail this morning.

3) Kanye West, "Crack Music" - The thing that's infuriating about Kanye, like so many other great musical villains, is that his music is quite good, but he won't stop reminding you of this.

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Tunes On The Telly Tonight: (June 11)

Posted at 12:42 PM on June 11, 2009 by Barb Abney

Neko Case on Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien
Martha Wainwright on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon
Green Day on Last Call With Carson Daly

Solid Gold ask "Who You Gonna Run To?" with a free tune...

Posted at 12:52 PM on June 11, 2009 by Barb Abney

About a year ago, Solid Gold stopped by for an in-studio interview/performance. Since then, the band have released their full length debut Bodies Of Water and they've been relentlessly touring. They played multiple shows at this year's SxSW festival, they've done a small European tour and they've played virtually every stage within the Twin Cities including a headlining show at First Avenue. Next week they're playing Rock The Garden.

Today on our Song Of The Day podcast. You can grab the tune "Who You Gonna Run To?" for free!

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

If you're a new subscriber to the Song Of The Day podcast, you'll also receive new music from Viva Voce, Dirty Projectors, Jarvis Cocker and Polly Scattergood.

This weekend Solid Gold are playing with 80's legends The Psychedelic Furs as well as shows in NYC at Mercury Lounge and Pianos. They'll also be playing The Zoo with The Pines and Jeremy Messersmith on July 31st

More Solid Gold info...