The Current Music Blog: November 5, 2009 Archive

Today In Music History: Saluting The Grievous Angel

Posted at 6:12 AM on November 5, 2009 by Steve Seel (2 Comments)
Filed under: Music History

Birthdays:

Art Garfunkel is 68.
Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits is 62.
Bryan Adams is 50.
Guitarist Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead is 38.
Ryan Adams is 35.

Today in:

1956 - "The Nat King Cole Show" debuted on NBC-TV. The Cole program was the first of its kind hosted by an African-American.
1966 - The Monkees went to No.1 on US singles chart with "Last Train To Clarksville", the group's first No.1. They revealed during a press conference that no members of the group had played on the record.
1971 - Elvis Presley kicked off a 15-date North American tour at the Metropolitan Sports Center in Minneapolis. Announcer Al Dvorin uttered the well known phrase: "Elvis has left the building" at the end of the show. He was asked to make the announcement in an effort to quiet the fans who continued to call for an encore.
1995 - Producer Butch Vig's new band Garbage made their US live debut when they played at The 7th Street Entry.

Today's history highlight:

Singer songwriter Gram Parsons was born on this day in 1946. Parsons was a Member of The International Submarine Band, The Byrds, and The Flying Burrito Brothers, and had his own influential, if short-lived, solo career, with two studio albums to his credit: "G.P." and "Return Of The Greivous Angel." He died on 19th September 1973 from a heroin overdose at age 26. Since his death, his music has been credited with inspiring the genres of country rock and alt-country. This morning we honored him by playing "Return of the Greivous Angel."

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Weezer: Now With Twice The "Meta"

Posted at 7:51 AM on November 5, 2009 by Steve Seel (2 Comments)

As a number of observers (our own Mac Wilson included) have noted, Weezer only seems to get more ironically detached with each passing year, to the point that you genuinely have no idea if there's a sincere gesture left in them. Their new CD, Raditude, has plenty of this kind of stuff in it (a duet with Lil' Wayne?), but this week, we also got:

First this - a performance featuring a guest appearance by Kenny G:

Then this:

The second one is apparently real, by the way.

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Thursday Coffee Break: Bands That Survived A Change Of Lead Singer

Posted at 8:50 AM on November 5, 2009 by Steve Seel (26 Comments)
Filed under: 9:30 Coffee Break

That's the topic for today's 9:30 Coffee Break. Notice that all we said was survived (we didn't say that they necessarily prospered). Of course, there are tons of classic rock examples (Journey, anyone?), but we need your help to come up with a broad swath of choices here today. Chime in below, or here. Can't wait for your suggestions.

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11-05-09 Top 20

Posted at 5:33 PM on November 5, 2009 by Mark Wheat (5 Comments)
Filed under: The Chart Show

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Collins and Lucia

Posted at 8:04 PM on November 5, 2009 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)

Good, nobody seems to be around. So I'm sneaking in here to tell you that the afternoon conversation between Mary Lucia and Bob Collins (me) is being posted online on MPR's News Cut.

As humans, when we don't know the full details of a story, we fill in the blanks. Several stories in the news today provide an example. That's the subject of today's discussion, which you can find here.

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