Friday, December 2, 2011

Vinyl Record News & Music Notes

Feist and Mastodon Plan 7" Release

Mastodon have recently revealed that they and Feist are planning to cover each other for a vinyl 7-inch release. MTV Canada conducted an interview with Mastodon bassist and vocalist Troy Sanders, where he said that the acts will trade off songs for a special vinyl release for Record Store Day next year.

He said, 'The idea is for Mastodon to cover a Feist song, throw some hair and dirt on it, and they're going to take a Mastodon song and pretty it up a little bit'.

He said that they 'only have a short window' to put the project together next month, but 'we're going to do everything we can to work with Feist and have a split 7-inch and support independent record stores.'

Record Store Day is planned for April 21 next year.

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the ny times ran an article about a local record shop:

Funkadelic Sold Here, on Vinyl

THE death of the neighborhood record store has been mourned for decades now, but vinyl is alive and well on the southern edge of Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.

We wanted to make a place that revives the idea of discovery,” Jeff Ogiba, 30, an owner, said one recent afternoon. “Searching for a record should be like a treasure hunt.

Please read the article at nytimes.com

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up north of the border, this story caught my eye:

Artist says goodbye with Steve’s Vinyl

By ELISSA BARNARD

Halifax artist Cathy Busby is giving away her late brother’s record collection as an art project, a fundraiser and a way to let go.

The celebration and vinyl giveaway, Saturday from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. at the Khyber Centre for the Arts at 1588 Barrington St. in Halifax, is a fundraiser for the AIDS Coalition of Nova Scotia and the not-for-profit Khyber Arts Society.

Tickets are $20 and $15 and include an album and are available (cash only) at FRED, Lost and Found, Venus Envy and Taz Records.

When Busby’s brother, Steve, five years her senior, died in 1983 of AIDS-related illness, she was left his collection of almost 200 records.

"I don’t play vinyl and I’ve been carrying it around for 18 years," says Busby.

She wants to celebrate the memory of her brother.

Read the rest at thechronicleherald.ca

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ROGER TAYLOR Says No More QUEEN Albums

Despite rumors brewing all over the industry that QUEEN is prepping a new album featuring unfinished Freddie Mercury tracks, drummer Roger Taylor broke the news that, sadly, they're not.

According to The Pulse Of Radio, Taylor, who along with guitarist, Brian May, keeps the QUEEN brand alive, spoke to Ultimate Classic Rock, and explained, "I've got to tell you, there won't be an album. There's just not enough and the last thing I want to do is have a sort of barrel-scraping exercise. But there's a couple of great tracks that Freddie recorded with Michael Jackson that Brian and I are working on and they are good. So at some point they will surface I think when we feel it's a good moment. I don't really want to ride any sort of wave there. So that's an interesting thing, but that will be probably later some point next year."

Read more at our friends at Blabbermouth

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talked with Jamil from becausesoundmatters.com and we talked about some ideas and promotional things that we can do together. i hope that this becomes a great partnership! in the meantime, take a look at your x-mas list and i bet there is someone on it that would love this boxed set from Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers!





Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers - The Live Anthology Vinyl Box Set

Packaging Specs: The Live Anthology Features artwork and packaging by renowned contemporary artist Shepard Fairey

•Vinyl edition: 51 tracks mastered directly from the uncompressed 24-bit 96K files and pressed on 7 180-gram audiophile quality vinyl LP

•Deluxe book with liner notes offering personal perspective on the band and their music by Tom Petty, Warren Zanes, Bill Flanagan, Robert Hilburn, Joel Selvin, Austin Scaggs, and Phil Sutcliffe.

•Special packaging is an album sized bound book with 7 pockets to hold the discs, and a removeable booklet in the back.

Description:

The Live Anthology is a multiple-disc set of recordings drawn from thirty years of live performances. The collection brings together material from 1978-2007 culled from hundreds of hours of live concert recordings covering every era of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' tours and represents the best tracks as chosen by producers Tom Petty, Mike Campbell and Ryan Ulyate.

The producers made no fixes or overdubs, letting the newly mixed original recordings showcase the invention, spontaneity, craft, and the musicianship that has made Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers among the most celebrated live performers of their time. Along with powerful interpretations of their own classic hits and originals, The Live Anthology features the band tackling some of their best-loved cover material, from classics to obscure beauties to unexpected adaptations. The theme from Goldfinger, the Zombies' "I Want You Back Again," the Grateful Dead's "Friend of the Devil," early Fleetwood Mac's "Oh Well," Booker T. and the MGs' "Green Onions," James Brown's "Good, Good Lovin'" and many more. Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers travel wide, paying their musical debts through song and showing just how confidently the band moves across genres and over time.

Visit BecauseSoundMatters.com and pick up your copy!

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and in music history for the day

In 1949, Gene Autry's song "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer," hit the record charts.

In 1957, after his first two releases on Keen Records flopped, Sam Cooke finally had a hit record when "You Send Me" topped the Billboard Pop chart.

In 1957, Danny and the Juniors got their big break when they were asked to fill in for Little Anthony & the Imperials on Dick Clark's American Bandstand. Their performance of At the Hop sent the song to number 1 a month later.

In 1964, in London, Beatles drummer Ringo Starr had his tonsils removed at University College Hospital. He arrived at the hospital the previous day and stayed through December 10. believe it or not, this was BIG news back then :O)

In 1967, the Monkees album, "Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones Ltd" went to number one in the US and was certified Gold. It was their fourth straight LP to sell over a million copies, following "The Monkees", "More Of The Monkees" and "Headquarters". Not a bad run, considering The Beatles' classic, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" held the top spot for 15 weeks that year.

In 1967, singer Jimmie Rodgers is found in his car with a fractured skull. Although he alleges that a police officer beat him, no charges are ever filed. Rodgers had three big hits in 1958, "Kisses Sweeter than Wine", "Oh Oh, I'm Falling in Love Again" and "Honeycomb".

In 1969, Cindy Birdsong of the Supremes was kidnapped at knifepoint by a maintenance man who worked in the building she lived in. She later escaped unharmed by jumping out of his car on the San Diego freeway. The kidnapper was arrested in Las Vegas four days later.

In 1970, Eric Burdon launched a bumper sticker campaign aimed at fighting venereal disease. For every donation to the Los Angeles Free Clinic, Burdon sent out a bumper sticker that said Curb the Clap.

"You're So Vain" by Carly Simon was released in 1972.

The song is a critical profile of a self-absorbed lover; Simon asserts "You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you." The subject's identity has been the matter of speculation, fueled by Simon slowly revealing clues as to his identity, quite possibly a gimmick to attempt to hold popularity and awareness. The person Simon is singing about in this song remains a mystery, as she has never made it clear who she wrote it about; rumors include Warren Beatty, Kris Kristofferson, Cat Stevens, and Mick Jagger, all of whom she had affairs with. Carly has been elusive and changed her story a bit when asked the inevitable question about the song (strange considering the album title). In 1974, she told Modern Hi-Fi and Music: "That song is about a lot of people. I mean I can think of a lot of people. The actual examples that I've used in the song are from my imagination, but the stimulus is directly from a couple of different sources. It's not just about one particular person." personally, i give up trying to figure who the song was about, despite all of simon's "hints."

The line "I hear you went up to Saratoga and your horse naturally won," refers to the Saratoga Race Course horse racing season held in late July, August, and early September in Saratoga Springs, New York. The season is frequented by the rich and famous of New York and other cities on the East Coast.

The song is ranked at #72 on Billboard's Greatest Songs of All-Time. "You're So Vain" was voted #216 in RIAA's Songs of the Century. It remains Simon's biggest hit and is considered her signature song.



Also in 1972, The Temptations version of "Papa Was A Rolling Stone" gave the Motown group their fourth US number one song. The Temps' Otis Williams would later say that he considers "Papa" to be the last real classic the group recorded. An earlier rendition by The Undisputed Truth had stalled at number 63.

In 1973, the Who and some companions were jailed overnight for $6,000 worth of destruction they imposed on a hotel room after a show.

In 1975, disco group Silver Convention earns a Gold record for "Fly, Robin, Fly", just as it hit #1 on the Billboard Pop chart.

In 1978, Rod Stewart was at #1 on the U.K. singles chart with “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy,” the singer’s fifth U.K. chart topper. A plagiarism lawsuit by Brazilian musician Jorge Ben Jor confirmed that the song had been derived from his composition “Taj Mahal.” Stewart agreed to donate all his royalties from the song to United Nations Children’s Fund.

In 1979, Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisand’s “You Don't Bring Me Flowers” was at #1 on the U.S. singles chart. A radio station engineer had spliced together Neil’s version with Barbra’s version and got such good response, the station added it to their playlist. When Neil Diamond was told about it, he decided to re-record the song with Streisand herself, and within weeks of its release, the single went to #1 in the US and #5 in the UK.

In 1982, folk singer David Blue died of a heart attack at age 41 while jogging in New York’s Washington Square Park. He was a member of Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue during the late ’70s. He wrote “Outlaw Man” covered by the Eagles on their 1973 Desperado album.

In 1983, MTV aired the full 14-minute version of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video for the first time.



In 1991, the US Supreme Court ruled that The Shirelles, Gene Pitney and B.J. Thomas were owed $1.2 million in unpaid royalties.

In 1995, the Guinness Book of World Records confirmed that Ace of Base's "The Sign" was the best-selling debut of all time, with 19 million copies sold.

In 1997, a fan died after falling from a balcony during a Rolling Stones concert at the Pontiac Silverdome in Michigan.

In 1997, Third Street Jazz and Rock Holding Corp., a Philadelphia record store, filed a class-action lawsuit against the six major U.S. record distributors. The suit claimed that EMI, Sony, WEA, Universal, Bertelsmann Music Group and Polygram conspired "to raise, fix, and maintain at artificially high and non-competitive levels the wholesale prices" of CDs.

In 2000, thieves broke into the London home Madonna shares with Guy Ritchie. The raiders forced their way in through a basement door then took a set of car keys before loading up Guy Ritchie’s car with some of the couple’s possessions and driving off.

Also in 2000, the Smashing Pumpkins played their last show in Chicago.

In 2006, David Mount, the drummer with Mud, died in London. They had the 1974 U.K. #1 single “Tiger Feet” (also the best-selling single of 1974). Plus, Mud had 14 other U.K. Top 40 singles.

In 2006, Mariska Veres, vocalist for Shocking Blue on their 1969 hit "Venus", died of cancer at the age of 59. After Shocking Blue had disbanded in 1974, Mariska continued to tour and record as a solo act, with Jazz ensembles and a couple of reunions with her former band mates.   if you ever get the chance, listen to some of their old LPs, i love her voice and besides their big hit, they had many, many other wonderful cuts....



In 2007, Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne made more than $800,000 for charity after they sold off some of their possessions from their former US home. Items sold included the family’s custom pool table for $11,250 and a pair of Ozzy’s trademark round glasses went for $5,250. The beaded wire model of the Eiffel Tower that adorned the kitchen fetched $10,000, while skull-adorned trainers worn by Ozzy sold for $2,625.

In 2008, Odetta, the Folk singer whose powerful voice moved audiences and influenced fellow musicians for over 50 years, died of heart disease at the age of 77. Although never a mainstream Pop star, she was nominated for a Grammy Award three times.

birthdays today (among others) include: Nelly Furtado (33), Brian Chase (Yeah Yeah Yeahs) (33), Britney Spears (30), Ted Bluechel, Jr. (Association) (69), Dave Munden (Tremeloes) (68), Screamin’ Scott Simon (Sha Na Na) (63), Rick Savage (Def Leppard) (51) and Christopher Wolstenholme (Muse) (33)