Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Classic Rock Videos

Ramones - California Sun Live

Mr. Music ~ Jerry Osborne

I am continuing our new feature: Ask "Mr. Music." Now in its 23rd year of syndication (1986-2008), Jerry Osborne's weekly Q&A feature will be a regular post every Wednesday from now on. Be sure to stop by Jerry's site (www.jerryosborne.com) for more Mr. Music archives, record price guides, anything Elvis, buy & sell collectibles, record appraisals and much more. I thank Jerry for allowing the reprints.


FOR THE WEEK OF JULY 20, 2009


DEAR JERRY: Over the years I have seen you cure some challenging cases of earworms. Does the medical profession have a name for that area of specialization?

Tricky and creative wording has always appealed to me, and two examples lodged in my brain require your expertise.

One, by a male singer, has a string of rhyming words that all end in “zing.” I recall two of them to be “analyzing” and “criticizing.”

What is this title and the sequence of the “zing” words?

The other is by a woman who uses this same line twice in a row, yet each with somewhat different meaning: “I have to accept the fact that I have to accept the fact that,” etc.

Hurry, before these worms begin to multiply.
—Sandy Frye, York, Pa.



DEAR SANDY: The wormy examples threatening to fry the Frye brain (since you like wacky wording) are written and recorded by two geniuses of the music industry: Ray Stevens and Donna Fargo.

In his 1970 hit, “Have a Little Talk with Myself” (Monument 1171), Stevens lists some steps for self-improvement.

Here are the zingers in the order cited: analyzing; recognizing; itemizing; criticizing; realizing; organizing; summarizing; and ostracizing.

Your second melodious invertebrate is Donna Fargo's “It Do Feel Good” (ABC 17541). Released in 1975, this tune became her biggest hit of that year.

In it she muses: “I've got to accept the fact that I have to accept the fact that, love goes through changes just like we do.”

Two other instances of amusing wording just came to me, so let me share them:

In “Rio Bravo,” Dean Martin sings “By the river Rio Bravo, I walk all alone, and I wonder as I wander.”

Then there is Loretta Lynn, whose autobiographical “Coal Miner's Daughter” includes “I remember well, the well where I drew water.”

Remember, you read this here first: one who specializes in the treatment and eradication of troublesome earworms is an otologi-helminthologist.

Now I have to order new business cards.



DEAR JERRY: On Burt Bacharach's first chart hit, “Saturday Sunshine” (1963), the only artist credited on the record is “Burt Bacharach.”

Yet the lead vocal is by a young boy, accompanied by female backup singers.

I have never seen anything that identifies the boy, and later issues of the song are either instrumentals or have Burt Bacharach singing the song.

Can it be no one knows this kid?
—George Stoken, Moline, Ill.



DEAR GEORGE: In this age of information, you wouldn't think so. Yet …

Knowing there is not much about Burt that isn't covered online, I jumped on bacharachonline.com, a discussion forum that is all Burt all the time.

Turns out there are dozens of Bachoholics wondering the same thing.

Here is an excerpt from a post from steveo_1965:

“This is a piece of trivia that has been bugging me for years. The only way we will ever know is if someone, such as that particular person, or one the other singers reads this and comes forward to enlighten us.”

Okay, so far no one seems to know the “Saturday Sunshine” singer, but that was before we took the case.

Some may recall a few years ago when we unearthed Mike Redway, the uncredited singer of “Casino Royale” (film version) — coincidentally another Bacharach composition.

We have received unsolicited comments and helpful details from countless recording artists and others in the industry. It would not be a surprise to find the mystery singer's name in my inbox one day soon.


IZ ZAT SO? From 1952 through 1990, Burt Bacharach either wrote or co-wrote 101 Top 100 hit songs.

Two-thirds of those (66) made their way into the top 40, and 28 reached the Top 10.

And these six went all the way to No. 1: “This Guy's in Love with You” (Herb Alpert, 1968); “Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head” (B.J. Thomas, 1969); “(They Long to Be) Close to You” (Carpenters, 1970); “Arthur's Theme (The Best That You Can Do)” (Christopher Cross, 1981); “That's What Friends Are For” (Dionne Warwick and Friends: Elton John, Gladys Knight and Stevie Wonder, 1985); “On My Own” (Patti Labelle and Michael McDonald, 1986).

With a resume like this we'd better add Burt to today's list of anointed geniuses.

Copyright 2009 Osbourne Enterprises- Reprinted By Permission

Music News & Notes, New Album Cover Art

Echoes of Eternity Reveals New Album, "As Shadows Burn," Details

Guitarist/songwriter Brandon S. Patton checks in from Los Angeles about ECHOES OF ETERNITY’s sophomore album:

"Working with Logan Mader on As Shadows Burn was amazing. We had a lot of respect for him from the start, given his experience as a professional guitarist with Machine Head in the ‘90s and the great work he's done as a mixer and producer in recent years, the most recent Gojira album being a prime example."

"The difference between our debut album and this second album is night and day! On the first album, the mix was really uneven and the vocals had WAY too much effects on them. On As Shadows Burn, we captured a much more natural feel as a band. It doesn't sound so fucking processed and stiff. The guitars and drumming are way more aggressive and the band is smokin', with the whole album being slam-packed with killer riffs. The production and mix is a million times better. And Francine [Boucher] delivers an AMAZING vocal performance that is going to make people wake the fuck up. Even if you've made up your mind that you hate female-fronted metal, you are probably going to dig this record because first and foremost, its a KILLER metal record."

"The title of the album actually came from a line in the chorus of the song 'Veiled Horizon.' It was short and evoked strong imagery in our mind. We thought that title would lead to a really cool album cover if we worked with the right artist. And it did. [Brazilian artist] Gustavo Sazes (Old Man’s Child, Firewind, God Forbid) really nailed it!"

"We would love to take this bad boy on the road in 2010. It would be a damned shame if we didn't because we designed this record to fucking kick ass live! We missed a great chance to do a tour at the beginning of next year, so we are hanging tight for the right tour offer so we can get out on the road."

"As Shadows Burn" will be released in North America on September 22, 2009.

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SCAR SYMMETRY: New Album Title, Artwork Revealed

Swedish melodic progressive death metallers SCAR SYMMETRY have set "Dark Matter Dimensions" as the title of their new album, due in October via Nuclear Blast Records.

Check out the cover artwork below.



SCAR SYMMETRY parted ways with singer Christian Älvestam last year due to "business and creative differences and lack of interpersonal chemistry." The band explained at the time, "We came to a point where the band's existence was in jeopardy because of these differences, and the only way for us to continue with an inspired state of mind was to go through with this change in the lineup."

Christian has since been replaced by Roberth Karlsson (lead growl vocals and backing clean vocals) and Lars Palmqvist (lead clean vocals and backing growl vocals).

SCAR SYMMETRY's latest album, "Holographic Universe", registered the following first-week chart positions in Europe:

Finland: #37
UK: #39 (Indie chart)
Austria: #65
Germany: #68

In the U.S., the CD debuted at No. 33 on the Top New Artist Albums (Heatseekers) chart, which lists the best-selling albums by new and developing artists, defined as those who have never appeared in the Top 100 of The Billboard 200.

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SIX FEET UNDER Recording New 'Graveyard Classics' Album

Florida-based death metallers SIX FEET UNDER have entered the studio to begin recording "Graveyard Classics 3". According to the band, "We are about 60% finished with tracking. Everything is going great and we are having a lot of fun laying these new songs down."

SIX FEET UNDER covered AC/DC's entire "Back In Black" album for "Graveyard Classics 2", which came out in October 2004.

The original "Graveyard Classics" LP, was released in October 2000. It included cover versions of BLACK SABBATH's "Sweet Leaf", DEEP PURPLE's "Smoke on the Water" and JIMI HENDRIX's "Purple Haze".

"Death Rituals" (2008), the latest album from SIX FEET UNDER, entered the German Media Control chart at position No. 64. The CD sold around 2,300 copies in the United States in its first week of release, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The LP debuted at No. 14 on the Top New Artist Albums (Heatseekers) chart, which lists the best-selling albums by new and developing artists, defined as those who have never appeared in the Top 100 of The Billboard 200.

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Horse The Band Reveals New Album

Vagrant Records announces an October 6, 2009 release date for "Desperate Living," the fourth full-length from Southern California's Horse The Band. The twelve-track set was recorded at White Buffalo Studios in Los Angeles with producer Noah Shain and includes several special guests.

"Noah really cared about helping us get exactly the sound and feel we wanted on the record," said keyboardist Erik Engstrom. "We also have incredible guests on the record like classical pianist Valentina Lisitsa. She plays a Prokofiev piece (composed 100 years ago after his best friend shot himself in the face with a pistol) at the end of 'Rape Escape' which is possibly the most powerful song we've ever written. I'm a huge fan of hers and this is the first recording of her playing this piece of music –it's absolutely devastating."

Other guests include Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu in a noise and sound design production role and contributing vocals on the track "Shapeshift," which was recently released on limited edition 7" vinyl. K-SLAX, the mysterious underground rap sensation, guests on "Horse the song," and Ed Edge, whom fans know as the band's occasional triangle player, appears on "Big Business." The title track features The Number Twelve Looks Like You drummer, Jon Karel.

Horse The Band will be on the Never Say Die! Club Tour 2009 this fall and will be announcing their plans for a US tour soon. The band's 2008 Earth Tour was self-booked, self-financed, and covered 4 continents and 45 countries in just 3 months.

Horse The Band's current lineup is Nathan Winneke (vocals), David Isen (guitar), Erik Engstrom (keys), and Daniel Pouliot (drums)

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Marionette Reveals New Album

Sweden's Marionette has announced that their new album will be called "Enemies." "Enemies" will be released in October in Europe via Listenable Records. "Enemies" was recorded with a team of up-and-coming as well as established names in Swedish music including Pontus Hjelm (DEAD BY APRIL) and two-time Swedish Grammis award winning producer and songwriter Åke Parmerud. The album was mixed and mastered by Fredrik Nordström (IN FLAMES, AT THE GATES, BRING ME THE HORIZON) at Studio Fredman and Peter In De Betu (DIMMU BORGIR, ZONARIA) at Tailor Maid respectively in May 2009.

Aron discusses "Enemies:" “Unlike the recording process of Spite we recorded Enemies over a period of months, and we have had plenty of time to try new things in the studio to make the album absolutely insane. Every element that you heard on Spite has been taken to the extreme. At the same time, there is a clear evolution from Spite to Enemies. All of the live experience we have had while touring has made us more skillful as individual musicians and tighter as a band. All this will reflect itself on Enemies when it is in your hands this fall!”

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Beastie Boys Release Very Limited Vinyl Version Of Nas Collabo

Although their impending tour a new album are on hold due to an unfortunate health issue from group member MCA, the Beastie Boys plan to release a very limited 12" to indie record stores.

The limited record is of a live recording of their performance at this year's Bonnaroo Festival, when Nas joined the the trio on stage to perform a new track titled "Too Many Rappers" from the forthcoming album Hot Sauce Committee, due later this fall.

The 12" is limited to 5,000 copies, a move the Beasties did to return old school values, releasing music in a vinyl format before it goes out on a CD and digitally.

It is available now in stores.

For more information, visit RecordStoreDay.com

Adam "MC" Yauch of the Beastie Boys has been diagnosed with cancer of the salivary gland and must under go immediate surgery and a course of radiation.

Yauch made the announcement via video today, stating that his vocal chords are not affected and he is expected to make a full recovery. "I'm actually going to have to have surgery probably next week, coming up, and then after that have to have some radiation done, but the good news is that they did scans of my whole body and it's only localized in this one area, and it's not in a place that affects my voice."

Bacause of Yauch's illness, the group has decided to delay the release of their upcoming album, Hot Sauce Committee, Part 1 and cancel all immediate appearances, including those at festivals such as Lollapalooza, All Points West and Austin City Limits.



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Teenage Bottlerocket detail new album

Teenage Bottlerocket have revealed the title, track listing and cover art for their upcoming full-length and debut for Fat Wreck Chords. The record is titled They Came From The Shadows and is due out September 15, 2009. The band's previous full-length, Warning Device, was released in 2008, while a live album entitled Live in ’06 dropped earlier this year.










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Chuck Ragan announces limited picture disc


Chuck Ragan has announced plans to release a new limited edition picture disc. The bonus 7-inch includes a track from the new album, "Rotterdam", as well as an unreleased cover of "Coal Tattoo" from the Daytrotter Sessions.

The record will be sent out to people who pre-order Chuck's forthcoming album, Gold Country which is due out September 1, 2009.

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Sum 41 back in the studio

Sum 41 have posted another update. The band has wrapped up their tour with The Offspring and are now back in the studio to finish their album:

Now we're going to knuckle down and finish this album!! Deryck and I will probably start rehearsing once a week pretty soon and Cone will come down every month and we can battle about kick patterns, bass parts and guitar riffs. Hell, we'll even bring Brown Tom so he can add a new dynamic to the creative experience - strolling around in his tighty orangies.

The band released Underclass Hero in 2007.

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Drag The River to record new album this fall


In a recent interview with AltOhio, Jon Snodgrass mentioned that he and bandmate Chad Price will be recording a new Drag the River album in November and that at least some of it will be recorded in Austin, TX:

"I’ve been talking to Price, from Drag the River, and we’re talking about what to do next November in Austin. I’m thinking about going down a few days early, and just figuring out a little my part in what we’ll end up doing. So, we’re going to do another Drag the River record. I’ve got some songs written that definitely have to be for Drag the River, if I put them on a record of mine, people will just say that they sound like they should be on a Drag the River record. We’ve worked on a couple of ideas together already, which we’ve done in the past for sure; we definitely come in with almost complete songs and then try to help each other out. This time I think we might write more together. Don’t know though."

Drag The River's last proper full-length was 2008's You Can’t Live This Way, while a rarities collection entitled Bad at Breaking Up was released earlier this year. Snodgrass has kept busy in the meantime, releasing his first solo record Visitor’s Band earlier this year, and a split LP with Cory Branan via Suburban Home Records.

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Our Lady Peace New Album

Canadian alternative rock band, Our Lady Peace, return with their first album in four years. Burn Burn is the band's shortest album to date at 10 tracks. Their previous album, Healthy in Paranoid Times, was released in August 2005.

Our Lady Peace recently played at Ulrich City Centre in Lockport as part of the Molson Canal Concert Series.

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Set Your Goals Release

San Francisco pop punk band, Set Your Goals, release their second full-length album. This will Be the Death of Us is the band's debut on Epitaph Records. It is reported their manager paid $150,000 to their previous label, Eulogy Recordings, to buy out their contract.

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Rock & Roll 25th Acts Confirmed

It's being reported in Rolling Stone Magazine that Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, U2, Paul Simon, Metallica, Eric Clapton, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Friends and Simon and Garfunkel are among the legendary artists confirmed for a landmark two-night concert event celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Sprawling across October 29th and 30th at New York’s Madison Square Garden, the shows will feature Hall of Fame acts sharing the stage with guests and collaborators, honoring their influences and essentially retracing the
history of rock in the process. For example, Crosby, Stills and Nash will share the stage with California-based artists while Metallica will lead a hard rock portion of the concerts. Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin will also each front a soul revue with Paul Shaffer and the CBS Orchestra.

“These once-in-a-lifetime concerts are designed to celebrate the artists and their music,” said Jann S. Wenner, founder and editor of Rolling Stone and the event’s executive producer.

The Rock Hall is also planning a book and deluxe DVD set to mark its 25th anniversary. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: The First 25 Years will be published by Collins Design in September, and in August, Time Life will issue a nine-disc box set of highlights of the past induction ceremonies including never-before-seen footage.

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MJ Trading Cards

The Upper Deck Trading Card company is randomly inserting four different Jackson Icon cards in their upcoming UDx Baseball release, scheduled for August 4. The cards are in honor of his 1993 appearance at the Super Bowl. Two of the cards are shown below.

Vinyl records firm presses on

Louis Aguilar / The Detroit News

Detroit -- If ever a National Register of Historic, Cool, Hard-core, 20th-Century Machinery is created, Archer Record Pressing would be a landmark.

Archer is one of the last companies in the world still making vinyl records -- a technology the corporate music industry decided to banish four decades ago.

This third-generation family business doesn't fear the death of vinyl: There's always a subculture of musicians that want their work on albums. Archer fears its massive record machines will die. And the machines constantly break down.

"We rely on the best of 1970s technology," said Joe Archer, whose father Norm, started the business in 1965.

The company has no choice. The last record-making machine is believed to have been made in 1986, according to various Web sites dedicated to vinyl records.

The five presses at Archer were bought from the other record press companies that went under decades ago.

A sole company in North America sells the specialized parts for the machines. At its core, a record-making machine is a hydraulic press with a closing force of 100 tons. It has steam pipes, tubes, buttons, motors, molds and mechanical doo-dads specific to mass-producing vinyl.

In operation, the machines produce a kind of score of heavy industry sounds. The boom of the press can be heard a half-block away. There's a rhythm of hissing steam, a hydraulic whoosh, a high-pitched metallic slice, the low rumble of a generator.

Few know how to fix the record machines. One is Mike Archer, 43, who learned by growing up watching Joe, his father, fix them.

"It's a daily battle," Mike Archer said. "They're finicky machines. If your scrap rate starts going up, you start looking at the press and say, 'All right, what are you doing to me today?'" Scrap rate refers to the number of defective records.

"You try to isolate what's happening and narrow it down, narrow it down. Is it pneumatic? Electrical? Steam? Most times, it's an issue that takes two or three minutes to deal with. Sometimes, you can scratch your head for two or three hours. Once every couple months, you can feel like the sky is falling."

It is unclear how many record-making companies still exist. Web sites count between eight and 10 worldwide, and three to five in the United States.

Mike Archer knows of two that went under during the past year because their aging owners could not find anyone who wanted to take them over.

Archer has two full-time employees, including 25-year veteran Ken Moravcik. But only Mike and Joe know how to fix the machines.

"It would be a steep learning curve, but you could do it," Mike Archer said. "It's too bad we can't get some apprenticeship program going."

Archer Record Pressing is a landmark to some, including employee Andy Garcia, 33, a devotee of Detroit techno music.

"It's almost holy to me," he said.

Archer Records has survived thanks in no small part to the many Detroit techno artists who rely on vinyl to spin during their performances. Virtually every major Detroit techno artist, who often has their own record label, relies on Archer.

"Every album I ever (bought) had Archer Record on it," said Garcia, who grew up in Anderson, Ind. "When I moved to Detroit, I begged for a job here. I remember when I first came, I thought the place would be a little more spectacular.

"Detroit's like that: It's spectacular where it counts."

Another fan is longtime client Theo Parrish, an international techno artist whose label Sound Signature has had more than 30 albums made at Archer.

"Some of the most amazing dance records that have come out in the last 10 years have come out of this place," Parrish said.

He often stops by Archer when his albums are being pressed. "My thoughts are being translated into the physical universe right there. It's beautiful to see."

Parrish has been so moved by the sounds of the machines that he's producing a song based on them.

"That's one of the hearts of industrial Detroit to me," he said.

Archer has enjoyed a recent bounce in sales, although the owners decline to reveal specific figures.

"The iPod and file-sharing have actually been good to us. Some artists, especially independent rock bands, always want to ensure that enough people are actually buying their product," instead of downloading it for free, Mike Archer said.

"Vinyl will always be around. Whether there will be someone who has the will to mass-produce them? It can be done.

"But if someone will do it? That's a good question."


SOURCE: www.detnews.com