The Current Music Blog: June 16, 2009 Archive

Today In Music History: The Summer of Love Begins

Posted at 7:30 AM on June 16, 2009 by Steve Seel

Birthdays:

Lamont Dozier of the songwriter team of Holland/Dozier/Holland is 68. He wrote many hits for Motown records, including The Supremes, Four Tops, Marvin Gaye, Martha Reeves & The Vandellas plus Freda Payne and Chairmen Of The Board.

1971 - Tupac Amaru Shakur (Lesane Parish Crooks) was born. He died from bullet wounds on September 13th 1996.
1976 - The Jackson Five four-week summer variety show premiered on CBS- TV featuring The Jacksons plus sisters Latoya, Rebbie and Janet.
1980 - The Blues Brothers film starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd premiered in Chicago. The film also featured Aretha Franklin, James Brown and Ray Charles in the role of a streetwise store owner.
1982 - Pretenders guitarist James Honeyman-Scott died following sustained cocaine and heroin addiction.
2000 - On the first night of his 'Up in Smoke' tour in Chula Vista, Snoop Dogg's tour bus was stopped at the Temecula border checkpoint in San Diego after the border patrol smelled marijuana wafting from the tour bus. One member of the crew was arrested.

On this day in 1967, The three day Monterey Pop Festival in California began. All the proceeds went to charity when all the artists agreed to perform for free, the "Summer of Love" was born. The festival saw the first major US appearances by The Who, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. Also on the bill: The Byrds, Grateful Dead, Otis Redding, Simon & Garfunkel, The Steve Miller Band, Canned Heat, The Mamas And The Papas, Jefferson Airplane, and Buffalo Springfield. Tickets cost $3.50-6.50. We played Hendrix (humorously promising to "bore the crowd for six minutes"), covering Dylan's "Like A Rolling Stone." It's hardly boring.

Look to the future with Yeasayer when you grab "2080" for free!

Posted at 9:23 AM on June 16, 2009 by Barb Abney

"2080" is the very first single from Yeasayer's 2007 debut All Hour Cymbals. Today on our Song Of The Day podcast you can grab the tune for free!

If you're a new subscriber to the Song Of The Day podcast, you'll also receive new music from Jarvis Cocker, Polly Scattergood, local music from Solid Gold and Eels.

Later this week we will be featuring new music from Calexico, The Decemberists and local music from Two Harbors.

Of course, Yeasayer are playing Rock The Garden along with The Decemberists, Calexico and Solid Gold this Saturday.

According to their recording blog, Yeasayer also plans to release their next full length early next year and hopes that a new single will be made available in the fall.

More Yeasayer...

3 songs about the mysteries of life...

Posted at 12:01 PM on June 16, 2009 by Barb Abney
Filed under: My Three Songs

Andy Moe from Menomonie, Wisconsin picked today's My 3 Songs set because...

"Song 1) My hopes
Song 2) My dreams
Song 3) My fears"

Broken Social Scene - "Fire Eye'd Boy"
Neutral Milk Hotel - "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea"
Radiohead - "There There"

Make your "My 3 Songs" requests here.

Help Jill Rediscover Her Mandolin Mojo!

Posted at 10:48 AM on June 16, 2009 by Steve Seel (3 Comments)

We've all decided to take up something new, only to find our interest wane a bit - often, it's a musical instrument. For my co-host, it's the mandolin she got for Christmas. So today for the 9:30 Coffee Break, she asked for some of your favorite rock tunes with mandolin to help her rediscover what inspired her in the first place. The ones we picked from your suggestions:

1) Led Zeppelin, "Going To California"
2) The White Stripes, "Little Ghost"
3) The Smiths, "Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want"
4) The Waterboys, "Fisherman's Blues"

I like the ones that you forget have mandolin in them until you listen again, like the Smiths entry. That's a great example of how the instrument can provide a gorgeous kind of coloring, or atmosphere, unlike anything else.

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TC's on the Telly all week!

Posted at 8:13 PM on June 16, 2009 by Mark Wheat

It's Twin Cities Music Week on MTV2
Video from Soundset 09 and behind the scenes features with POS and Tapes'n'Tapes. Another reason to be thankful for where we live!!