The Current Music Blog: July 13, 2009 Archive

Today In Music History: Live Aid Gets Weird

Posted at 5:55 AM on July 13, 2009 by Steve Seel

Birthdays:

Roger McGuinn (guitar, vocals, The Byrds) is 67.

1964 - The Animals went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'The House Of The Rising Sun.' Recorded in one take, this was the first UK No.1 to have a playing time of more than four minutes.
1968 - Black Sabbath played their first gig at a small backstreet Blues club in Birmingham, England.
1969 - Over 100 US radio stations banned The Beatles new single "The Ballad Of John and Yoko" due to the line 'Christ, you know it ain't easy', calling it offensive.
1985 - Duran Duran became the first artists to have a No.1 on the US singles chart with a James Bond theme, when "A View To A Kill", went to the top of the charts.
1997 - A trial against John Denver for drunken driving ended in a hung jury, deadlocked 3-3. Denver's defence attorney argued that the singer suffered from a thyroid condition that had distorted blood alcohol tests.

Toda in in 1985, the Live Aid concerts to help starving people in Africa were held in London, Philadelphia and other cities. Live Aid was organized by singer Bob Geldof (since knighted) and featured dozens of top entertainers. It's estimated more than 1.5 billion people either watched Live Aid on television or listened to a radio broadcast.

Live Aid was remarkable for multiple reasons, most of all of course for it's outpouring of collective charity in rock during an era when such sentiments had been dcleared by many all but dead. But it was also notable for reuniting certain aritsts who had not played together for some time - such as Led Zeppelin (who had not played together since the death of John Bonham in 1979) and Black Sabbath, featuring Ozzy Osbourne on vocals. Since few things seem less in keeping with the warm spirit of the concert as Ozzy and Sabbath, we thought we'd highlight one of the weirder moments of the day with "Paranoid," which the band played on the Wembly Stadium stage that afternoon.

Nashville duo invites you to partake of some Black Magic...

Posted at 10:08 AM on July 13, 2009 by Barb Abney

We've heard this story before.. guy and girl meet online; guy and girl fall for each other from hundreds of miles away; guy and girl move in together.. this is where it usually winds up in some kind of horror story. Not this time around, though. The story of Chris and Dexy Valentine of the band Magic Wands is a love story for this age.

If that's not enough mythology for you, how about this nugget? According to this blog post the band recorded their EP in New York, using the same drum machine as Prince's Purple Rain.

The duo recently released the Magic Love & Dreams EP and today on our Song Of The Day podcast you can grab the tune "Black Magic" for free!

If you're a new subscriber, you'll also receive new music from Son Volt, Los StraightJackets, Jeffrey Lewis and The Junkyard and local music from Toki Wright. Later this week we'll be giving away new music from MC Rut, Amazing Baby,
The Rural Alberta Advantage and new local music from Double Bird.

Magic Wands wil be playing 7th Street Entry along with School Of 7 Bells on October 13th.

The Bo Diddley Beat

Posted at 11:49 AM on July 13, 2009 by Steve Seel

This morning just before 8:00, we played "Teen Beast" by Los Straightjackets, and that got us to thinking about the so called "Bo Diddley beat." You know the one; "bomp, bomp, bomp ... da bomp-bomp." Diddley may not have invented it, but he sure perfected it and made it famous. So we thought we'd ask for songs that use the beat for the 9:30 Coffee Break today. Your suggestions:

1) Bow Wow Wow, "I Want Candy"
2) U2, "Desire"
3) The Who, "Magic Bus"
4) The Rolling Stones, "Not Fade Away" (Buddy Holly cover)
5) The Stooges, "1969"

Green Day photos from our "official" photographer

Posted at 2:31 PM on July 13, 2009 by Michael Wells

Kevin Iverson won our contest last week to be The Current's official photographer at the Green Day concert last Saturday at the Target Center. Check out some of the great photos he took at the show!

Photo Gallery on Gather.com

Updates on The Current's Redesign

Posted at 5:00 PM on July 13, 2009 by Michael Wells

It's been almost a week since the launch of the redesigned Current Web site, and we've been getting some great feedback from you. We've also made several updates and edits based on your feedback, and I just wanted to give you the rundown.

Recent Changes:
* On-air Host info is now appearing on the Current's homepage
* Added time stamps to the songs on the Current's homepage.
* The playlist on The Current homepage is now automatically refreshing when a new song is played.
* Added the Request link to the top of the homepage
* Added a link to the live stream from the Playlist page

Keep the feedback coming by using this form. We really want to make The Current's Web site the best we can, and we can only do that with your help.

- Michael Wells
Web Producer - The Current