The Current Music Blog: June 26, 2009 Archive

Today In Music History: Worst, and Best, Covers

Posted at 6:14 AM on June 26, 2009 by Steve Seel

Mick Jones (The Clash) is 54.
Chris Isaak is 53.
Harriet Wheeler (vocals, The Sundays) is 46.
Colin Greenwood (bass, Radiohead) is 40.

1910, Born on this day, Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis Presley's manager. Before working in the music business Parker ran a troupe of dancing chickens. He died on January 21st 1997.
1965, The Byrds went to No.1 on the US singles chart with their version of Bob Dylan's "Mr Tambourine Man".
1974, Cher divorced Sonny Bono after 10 years of marriage. Four days later, Cher married guitarist Gregg Allman, the couple split 10 days after that, got back together and split again. They did stay married for three years, producing Elijah Blue Allman.

2008, Total Guitar magazine voted Celine Dion's rendition of the AC/DC track "You Shook Me All Night Long" as the world's worst cover version ever, the magazines editor Stephen Lawson said Dion's cover was "sacrilege". In the best cover versions list, Jimi Hendrix was voted into first place with his version of the Bob Dylan song "All Along the Watchtower", The Beatles' rendition of "Twist and Shout", (first recorded by the Top Notes), was in second place, followed by the Guns N' Roses version of the Wings song "Live and Let Die".

We all went a little crazy on the Decemberists.

Posted at 10:40 AM on June 26, 2009 by Ali Lozoff (11 Comments)

We are still floating on a bit of a cloud here in the aftermath of Rock the Garden. With an indescribably perfect day, a gorgeous sunset, a scenic setting and lots of amazing music, the elements came together in a way that just seemed.... magical. Solid Gold lived up to their name and started the party off right. Yeasayer delivered infectious rhythms custom-made for a hot summer afternoon. Calexico made us feel like we were baking in the sunlight of the American Southwest. And then the Decemberists unleashed the full power of their orchestral sound just as the sun set behind the Minneapolis skyline. As if their top-to-bottom performance of "The Hazards of Love" wasn't enough, they gifted us with this:

Look for more videos and photographs soon, and tune in for Mark Wheat's recap show at 4:30 on Sunday. You can also see photos from the day's event on our Flickr page.

Thanks to everyone who came out. We hope to capture that lightening in a bottle again next year.

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Little Man gives a hoot about free music!

Posted at 10:54 AM on June 26, 2009 by Barb Abney

Chris Perricelli is known as Little Man. He was recently in studio along with Jim Walsh, Martin DeVaney and Eliza Blue when the Hootenanny gang joined David Campbell for a taping of The Local Show.

Today on our Song Of The Day podcast. You can grab one of the tunes they they recorded during that live session, "Not Quite So High" for free!

Join The Hootenanny 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 Placebo, Rancid and Sonic Youth.

Next week we'll be giving away new music from British Sea Power, Mos Def, Tiny Masters of Today and Deastro.