Friday, May 14, 2010

Music News & Notes

'Twilight Eclipse' Track Listing & Album Cover Revealed

Posted on May 12th 2010 5:37PM by Matthew Wilkening1 CommentsThe cover art and track listing for the soundtrack to 'The Twilight Saga: Eclipse,' the third in the extremely popular series of movies based on the vampire novels by Stephenie Meyers, was revealed on Wednesday, May 12th. The album will feature new songs from Dead Weather, Vampire Weekend, Metric, The Bravery and many more.

The soundtrack will be available on June 8th.








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Limp Bizkit's Cover Art For New LP Gold Cobra

As time closes in on the release date for Limp Bizkit's first album in 7 years, the band revealed the cover art for "Gold Cobra" out summer 2010, which will also be the first album to feature the original line up since 2000's "Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water."

The best thing I've heard from any member of the band, speaking about the release was Wes Borland's statement in a previous interview with Guitar Edge:

"I think that everyone who hated Limp Bizkit before will continue to hate Limp Bizkit. It's not like we, all of a sudden, grew up and started making smarter music. It's definitely a fun, party kind of vibe. It's a little bit like the old stuff, but with a little bit of maybe a Daft Punk vibe thrown in on some of it. There's big, huge riffs and hopefully catchy lyrics."









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Judy Collins Reissues

Collectors' Choice Music has recently announced that they will be reissuing nine albums from Judy Collins on July 27. Along with being remastered, the albums will have new liner notes by Ritchie Unterberger which include interviews with Collins.

The nine albums are:

•Fifth Album (1965)
•In My Life (1966)
•Whales & Nightingales (1970)
•True Stories & Other Dreams (1973)
•Bread & Roses (1976)
•Running for My Life (1980)
•Times of Our Lives (1982)
•Home Again (1984)
•Christmas at the Biltmore (1997)

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Beatles Press Conference Tape Up for Auction

The 1966 press conference where John Lennon is asked about his declaration of the Beatles being more popular than Jesus has been found on reel-to-reel tape and is being auctioned by Bonhams & Butterfields. The 14-minute tape also includes discussions on Viet Nam, the generation gap and how long the Beatles expect to be together. On the last subject, John Lennon replies "We're obviously not gonna go around holding hands forever." Paul McCartney adds "it would be a bit, you know, embarrassing at 35."

The tape is expected to bring upwards of $20,000.

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Scissor Sisters To Release New Album in June

Scissor Sisters will release their third album, 'Night Work,' in the U.S. on June 29th on Downtown Records.

The band, which has sold over seven million albums worldwide, recorded the album in London, the Bahamas and New York City, working for the first time with an outside producer, Stuart Price (The Killers, Madonna).

Scissor Sisters will play second to headline at the Glastonbury Festival on June 26th and will headline the iTunes Festival at The Roundhouse in London on July 1st. See below for a detailed U.K. itinerary. U.S. tour dates will be announced shortly.

From the album cover - a spandex-covered derriere shot by Robert Mapplethorpe - to its contents, Night Work pays homage to the club scene of the 1970's and 80's.

Additional images by the iconic New York photographer, who died in 1989, will be used as covers for each of Night Work's singles. Fans can get a sneak preview of the euphoric "Fire With Fire," the album's lead single at http://www.scissorsisters.com/

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Cassette tapes make a comeback

AUSTIN, Texas — On the second day of this year’s South by Southwest Music Conference and Festival, Philadelphia-based Free Energy, like other buzzed-about acts, played the Levi’s Fader Fort, a weeklong party that has become one of the most popular events for music fans who don’t bother with a wristband.

The group, whose music has drawn comparisons to a host of classic rock bands from the 1970s, released its debut album digitally in the beginning of March. Its members came to Austin equipped with marketing materials meant to help get their music heard, and they handed out what some might consider a curious artifact — cassette tapes.

“The only people who listen to CDs now are old people and people who sold their vinyl collection and bought CDs and now are stuck with them,” lead singer Nick Shuminsky said during the festival. “Most bands that tour have (expletive) vans that still have tape players, and the idea is that, at the very least, our friends in bands can listen to our record while they’re touring.”

Read the rest here: http://www.bismarcktribune.com/lifestyles/weekend/article_1417d0e6-5e38-11df-9b94-001cc4c03286.html

This Date In Music History - May 14

Birthdays:

Jack Bruce - Graham Bond Organization, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, Manfred Mann, Cream (1943)

Gene Cornish - Young Rascals (1946)

Al Ciner - American Breed, Three Dog Night (1947)

David Byrne - Talking Heads (1952)

Steve Hogarth - Marillion (1959)

C.C. Deville - Poison (1962)

Ian Astbury - Southern Death Cult, The Cult, joined The Doors in 2002 (1962)

Fabrice Morvan - Milli Vanilli (1963)

Mike Inez - Alice In Chains (1966)

Danny Wood - New Kids On The Block (1971)

Freaky Tah - Lost Boyz (1971)

Natalie Appleton - All Saints (1973)

Shanice (1973)


They Are Missed:

Born on this day in 1936, Bobby Darin, (1959 US & UK No.1 single "Mack The Knife," plus 20 other US Top 40 hits). He died on December 20, 1973.

In 1976, 33 year-old Keith Relf, former lead singer for The Yardbirds, was electrocuted while tuning a guitar which was not properly earthed. The accident happened in his West London home where he was found by his eight year old son, still holding the plugged-in electric guitar.

Born today in 1946, Lek LecKenby, guitar, Herman's Hermits. He died on 4th June 1994.

Frank Sinatra died of a heart attack in 1998.



Born on this day in 1953, John Rutsey, drummer and founding member of Rush. Died May 11, 2008.


History:

Bo Diddley’s “Bo Diddley” backed with “I’m A Man” landed on the R&B charts in 1955. Both songs were later covered in the '60s by British groups.

In 1956, Buddy Holly's optometrist gives him contact lenses for his 20/800 eyesight, but he can't get used to them, so the trademark glasses stayed.

Elvis Presley was rushed to a Los Angles hospital in 1957 after swallowing a porcelain cap from one of his front teeth, which then lodged its-self in one of his lungs.

In 1960, The Silver Beats (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Stu Sutcliffe, and Tommy Moore) performed at Lathom Hall, Seaforth, Liverpool. They played a few songs during the "interval" to audition for promoter Brian Kelly. Also appearing are Cliff Roberts & the Rockers, The Deltones, and Kingsize Taylor & the Dominoes. This is the only occasion on which the group uses the name "Silver Beats", quickly changing it back to "Silver Beetles".

Jan & Dean began recording "Little Old Lady (From Pasadena)" in 1964.

The Rascals recorded "People Got To Be Free" in 1968.



In 1968, Paul McCartney and John Lennon appeared on NBC-TV's "Tonight Show" (with guest-host Joe Garagiola).

Dennis Yost and Wally Eaton of the Classics IV were seriously injured in a car crash near Atlanta in 1969. (Wally never again tours with the group)

Leo Sayer went to #1 on the US singles chart in 1977 with the Albert Hammond and Carole Bayer Sager song "When I Need You."

Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine started a two week run at No.1 on the US singles chart in 1988 with "Anything For You."

Also in 1988 - Atlantic Records celebrated its 40th anniversary with a televised cable show. Atlantic Records celebrates its 40th anniversary at New York’s Madison Square Garden. Yes, Genesis, Foreigner and Crosby, Stills & Nash, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Wilson Pickett and Ben E. King performed. A re-united Led Zeppelin hits the stage with Jason Bonham filling in for his late father John. Zeppelin plays “Stairway To Heaven” and “Whole Lotta Love.”

The album 'Revenge' was released by KISS in 1992. The album featured a new drummer, Eric Singer.

During an auction at Christies in London in 1993, the acoustic guitar that Elvis Presley used to make his first recordings in 1954, "That's All Right Mama" and "Blue Moon of Kentucky" sold for $152,000. And four 'Super Hero', Costumes worn by the group Kiss sold for $35,385.

In 2004, Steven Tyler fulfilled a terminally ill female fan's wish when he gives her a kiss after Aerosmith`s concert in Winnipeg, Canada.

As if he didn't already have enough trouble, in 2004, Phil Spector was arrested after getting into a scuffle with his chauffeur at his California mansion. The 64 year old record producer was taken into custody and later released after a court date was set.

In 2005, a judge in Springfield, Massachusetts, ordered rapper 50 Cent to stay clean of drugs and take an anger management course to avoid spending time in jail. The rapper appeared in court charged with assaulting three women at a concert in 2004 after leaping into the crowd.

In 2007, Capitol/EMI announced that Paul McCartney's post-Beatles catalog will be sold digitally. "For the very first time, McCartney and Wings albums will be made available across all digital platforms," reads the EMI/Capitol statement.

Retro Ron's spreads word of vinyl revival

By Jacob Bohrod
Special to The Free Press

MANKATO — Where North Broad Street and Madison Avenue collide, a building sits frozen in time — a time before laptops and hybrid cars, plasma TVs and high-definition.

Retro Ron’s brings to mind childhood memories for some. For those who can barely remember life without Twitter, it provides a much-needed history lesson.

Operated by Mankato’s Ron Nord, Retro Ron’s is a vintage music store that prides itself on transporting customers back to the heyday of music and American culture with seemingly endless amounts of vinyl records, cassettes and even 8-tracks.

“Buy, sell, trade — whatever works,” Nord said.

After opening shop Feb. 2, Nord has been diligently spreading the word about the revival of vinyl. Dealing in parts, pieces, players, needles and all things vinyl, Nord’s business reflects a return to vintage music and the means to play it. The unfortunate bit, and what he can’t stress enough, is that unlike digital music, records easily succumb to wear-and-tear, crippling the value of the majority of albums he sees.

“It’s like anything else in the antiques and collectibles market: condition is the utmost importance,” he said. “(There are) very, very few collectible records.”

Nord said a record’s worth is decided by condition, artist and number produced, and in that order. The varying degree with which people treat their albums is a shame, he said, but it does result in the 50-cent and $1 bins that line Retro Ron’s.

“One scratch will drop a $100 record down to $2,” said Stafford Taillon, a personal contractor and Minnesota State University student who retools record players and the like from a small work station in the back of the store.

Nord reiterated: “Ninety-five percent of records are worth 50 cents to $3; that’s their resale value. We have to pay wholesale.”

For collectors, finding the diamond in the rough is what makes collecting so interesting, so addicting, and Nord would be the first to agree. Retro Ron’s is out to promote the fun in discovering old things in a new way, not to give the customer a bad deal, he said.

Nord said in a previous shop he operated, just after Michael Jackson died last summer, a few fans wondered how much Nord would “soak ’em” for a vinyl copy of “Thriller” or “Bad.” They’re $3 each, he told them.

Nord said he requests every entering patron’s taste in music so he knows what to play while he/she browses the store. A listening station, “the chair of sound” as Nord calls it, allows customers to try out albums before purchasing them as well.

A self-proclaimed “born promoter,” Nord promises to call on the connections he has made over years of dabbling in the music industry to play both announced and unannounced sets in the store. This, on top of plans to adorn the tiny interior with black lights, tube lights, lava lamps and beaded doorways, will surely redefine (or, perhaps, re-redefine) music fans’ ideas of a shopping experience, he said.

In a way, Retro Ron’s is Nord’s way of complementing and putting on display what he feels is a city rife with musical talent and musical history.

“Oh, it’s a hotbed for music,” he said. “There are so many good bands and music around.”

Of course, ask the business owner, disc jokey and “singing auctioneer” yourself, and he might give you a different answer, and few stories to go along with it.

“This is so fun because every day is totally different.”

Retro Ron’s is open noon to

6 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday, and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. The store also has an eBay online store at stores.ebay.com/retro-rons-record-revue.


SOURCE: http://mankatofreepress.com
The Free Press, Mankato, MN 418 South Second Street Mankato, MN 56001