March 29, 20232 yr A lot of times the acts are still playing in the same G/Em C/Am positions they usually did (80% of songs in 1980 were in these two keys) but now they are pitch-shifting them up or down to whatever key in order to "differentiate" the sound.
April 4, 20232 yr fyi you can livestream coachella — https://www.brooklynvegan.com/coachella-to-livestream-all-stages-both-weekends-for-2023/
April 6, 20232 yr yay for teenagers lol — the beatles earliest known uk concert unveiled: The Beatles’ earliest known full UK concert recording unearthed (listen) Andrew SacherPublished: April 5, 2023 The earliest known full recording of The Beatlesplaying a live concert in the UK has been unearthed after 60 years, BBC News reports. It's of their performance at Stowe boarding school in Buckinghamshire on April 4, 1963, which was just weeks after The Beatles had released their debut album Please Please Me. The band was booked by one of the show's students, David Moores, who had seen them play in Hamburg and had written to Beatles manager Brian Epstein to book them, and fellow student John Bloomfield--who was 15 at the time--recorded their hour-long performance to quarter-inch tape and kept it in the vault until now. more: https://www.brooklynvegan.com/the-beatles-earliest-known-full-uk-concert-recording-unearthed-listen/
April 6, 20232 yr On 3/29/2023 at 11:56 AM, GCrites80s said: A lot of times the acts are still playing in the same G/Em C/Am positions they usually did (80% of songs in 1980 were in these two keys) but now they are pitch-shifting them up or down to whatever key in order to "differentiate" the sound. There are of course famous songs that aren't in an exact key because of some sort of tape speed snafu. The two I can think of offhand are JUMPIN' JACK FLASH and IT'S A LONG WAY TO THE TOP (IF YOU WANNA ROCK N ROLL). They're both off by a quarter step. I still haven't figured out if The Pixies knew what they were doing or if it's completely accidental that they included jazz voicings in some of their songs. It's like, if you're screwing around on a piano, you can get interesting voicings by accident by doing the same hand positions on the left and right hands but moving one hand or the other up or down the keyboard. For example, if you play a C major triad with the left and right hand, but then keep the same finger spacings with the right hand but move up to D/F/A/ you then get C/E/G/D/F/A, which Lou Reed warned us is getting close to jazz. To do the same thing in a rock environment, you need to have two guitarists with plenty of time on their hands. One is the left hand and one is the right hand. Somehow The Pixies and few others did this. If you're Beethoven, you can anticipate those voicings without having functioning hearing.
April 6, 20232 yr And how about Strawberry Fields by the Beatles. There were 2 different versions which were entirely different in tempo, mood and musical key. John Lennon liked both, so he told George Martin to combine them. Edited April 6, 20232 yr by LibertyBlvd
April 6, 20232 yr then there were all the covers by stars of the previous era who were great singers of standards but were losing popularity in the 60's, and didn't quite make the mark when attempting Beatles' music. However this group from Brazil, hugely popular in the US, capitalizing on the bossa nova craze at the time, were able to put a refreshing spin on it Edited April 6, 20232 yr by eastvillagedon http://www.mainstreetpainesville.org/
April 7, 20232 yr 10 hours ago, Lazarus said: There are of course famous songs that aren't in an exact key because of some sort of tape speed snafu. The two I can think of offhand are JUMPIN' JACK FLASH and IT'S A LONG WAY TO THE TOP (IF YOU WANNA ROCK N ROLL). They're both off by a quarter step. I still haven't figured out if The Pixies knew what they were doing or if it's completely accidental that they included jazz voicings in some of their songs. It's like, if you're screwing around on a piano, you can get interesting voicings by accident by doing the same hand positions on the left and right hands but moving one hand or the other up or down the keyboard. For example, if you play a C major triad with the left and right hand, but then keep the same finger spacings with the right hand but move up to D/F/A/ you then get C/E/G/D/F/A, which Lou Reed warned us is getting close to jazz. To do the same thing in a rock environment, you need to have two guitarists with plenty of time on their hands. One is the left hand and one is the right hand. Somehow The Pixies and few others did this. If you're Beethoven, you can anticipate those voicings without having functioning hearing. I do that all the time on keyboard. Most of the time I'm thinking "This is wrong isn't it?" Meanwhile on guitar if you want to do the same thing you have to learn all the modes and read a book that has a pentagram on it -- The Guitar Grimole.
April 7, 20232 yr 10 hours ago, LibertyBlvd said: And how about Strawberry Fields by the Beatles. There were 2 different versions which were entirely different in tempo, mood and musical key. John Lennon liked both, so he told George Martin to combine them. This post reminded me of the Frank Zappa Beatles medley. He "covers" Strawberry Fields around 6:30:
April 19, 20232 yr Rogue AI-generated Drake song tops the charts, is taken down by his record company: https://www.axios.com/2023/04/19/ai-fake-drake-weeknd-song-streaming-services-removed So...where would I go to hear this AI-generated song now? There aren't CDs! This is the true beginning of the end of popular music. People are going to say "Alexa, play me a new Frank Sinatra song" and it's going to spontaneously generate a new song. Considering the fact that people don't care about lip syncing and who writes songs as-is, they really aren't going to care five years from now, when living celebrities are going to be a thing of the past. Celebrities themselves will be AI-generated. As will critics.
April 19, 20232 yr 4 hours ago, Lazarus said: Rogue AI-generated Drake song tops the charts, is taken down by his record company: https://www.axios.com/2023/04/19/ai-fake-drake-weeknd-song-streaming-services-removed So...where would I go to hear this AI-generated song now? There aren't CDs! This is the true beginning of the end of popular music. People are going to say "Alexa, play me a new Frank Sinatra song" and it's going to spontaneously generate a new song. Considering the fact that people don't care about lip syncing and who writes songs as-is, they really aren't going to care five years from now, when living celebrities are going to be a thing of the past. Celebrities themselves will be AI-generated. As will critics. nope. people were royally ticked off at frank ocean’s unprepared, lazy show and lip syncing at coachella sunday night: https://www.insider.com/coachella-frank-ocean-performance-review-disappointing-2023-4
April 20, 20232 yr 8 hours ago, mrnyc said: nope. people were royally ticked off at frank ocean’s unprepared, lazy show and lip syncing at coachella sunday night: I'm not going to feed the beast by clicking on it. This all sounds like a publicity stunt. Festivals are lame because musicians are just influencers now. AI-generated music documentaries are more entertaining than real music documentaries. This thing has a Russian accent, goes on odd tangents, and for some reason there is a cameo by Spock: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0CjCKlKRsU This is the future, people. Music is over. Shut down this thread.
April 20, 20232 yr 10 hours ago, Lazarus said: I'm not going to feed the beast by clicking on it. This all sounds like a publicity stunt. Festivals are lame because musicians are just influencers now. AI-generated music documentaries are more entertaining than real music documentaries. This thing has a Russian accent, goes on odd tangents, and for some reason there is a cameo by Spock: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0CjCKlKRsU This is the future, people. Music is over. Shut down this thread. lol no -- but your fearful rant is an A.I. publicity stunt. the fact is live music has come back from the covid era with a vengance, ie.: live nation reports global attendance grew by 24% in 2022 to 121 million fans at 44k events, with the company stressing that this wasn’t just about the biggest gigs and festivals: “This growth came from all markets and venue types – every venue type from clubs and theaters to stadiums to festivals had double-digit attendance growth vs 2019.” The figures are almost secondary (an appropriate word!) but still worth noting: Q4 revenues up 59% year-on-year to $4.29bn including 66% growth for concerts; 34% for ticketing and 44% for sponsorship revenues. Live Nation is predicting “another record year and even greater success in 2023” https://musically.com/2023/02/24/live-nation-concerts-are-one-of-the-last-experiences-fans-will-cut-back-on/
April 20, 20232 yr Jake thought music died in 1997, so I wouldn't put too much thought into his rant.
April 20, 20232 yr oh i like a good rant -- besides, we dont need no steenkin boring facts around here! 😅
April 21, 20232 yr On 4/20/2023 at 10:50 AM, mrnyc said: lol no -- but your fearful rant is an A.I. publicity stunt. the fact is live music has come back from the covid era with a vengance, ie.: live nation reports global attendance grew by 24% in 2022 to 121 million fans at 44k events, with the company stressing that this wasn’t just about the biggest gigs and festivals: “This growth came from all markets and venue types – every venue type from clubs and theaters to stadiums to festivals had double-digit attendance growth vs 2019.” The figures are almost secondary (an appropriate word!) but still worth noting: Q4 revenues up 59% year-on-year to $4.29bn including 66% growth for concerts; 34% for ticketing and 44% for sponsorship revenues. Live Nation is predicting “another record year and even greater success in 2023” https://musically.com/2023/02/24/live-nation-concerts-are-one-of-the-last-experiences-fans-will-cut-back-on/ It's never going to be close to what it was during the era when you had to play out to get heard, which is a very good thing for the musicians and the listeners. But it's definitely made a big comeback since the virus, or more specifically since the mask mandates went away.
May 13, 20232 yr who knew it even was still around anywhere? but anyway they just shut down mtv news: Media company Paramount Global, looking to reduce costs as it merges its Showtime and MTV networks, is letting go about 25% of the staff in its domestic cable networks, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday. Employees are being notified Tuesday, according to the report. Paramount is combining nine separate teams into one and among the units being shut down is MTV News, Bloomberg News reported. lots of stories here: https://nypost.com/2023/05/09/paramount-global-cuts-25-of-staff-shuts-down-mtv-news-report/
May 14, 20232 yr this is pretty fun news if you like your old punkiness ... and of course the ne ohio connections to the cramps -- btw playing prisons and mental hospitals was a big trend in the 70s after johnny cash did it: The Cramps' infamous 1978 performance at Napa State Mental Hospital with The Mutants was released as a VHS tape in the late '80s, but now there's a new version with the complete unedited performances for the first time ever, including The Mutants' set, which was previously unreleased. It's getting released on Blu-ray on June 13, the 45th anniversary of the show. You can watch a segment of the Cramps' performance below. “Somebody told me you people are crazy, but I’m not so sure about that…. you seem to be all right to me.” So says lead singer Lux Interior of The Cramps, challenging the mainstream stereotype of the crowd assembled before him at the Napa State Hospital. On June 13, 1978, the soon-to-be legendary rock band went to play Napa State, a psychiatric hospital in the small town of Napa in Northern California. Opening for them was The Mutants, an eclectic septet of art school punks from nearby San Francisco. Also in the van was seminal Bay Area art collective Target Video, there to capture the show using one of the first video cameras available to the public, democratizing a medium controlled by mainstream media outlets. What resulted may be the most unique punk show ever, as the two bands played for the residents at the hospital, a rehabilitation facility that was skimming the danger of being shut down by former California Governor Ronald Reagan. more: https://www.brooklynvegan.com/the-cramps-infamous-napa-state-mental-hospital-getting-blu-ray-release-screening-at-nitehawk-williamsburg/
May 14, 20232 yr speaking of punky old homies, pere ubu has a new album and very classically pere ubu type song: Pere Ubu's 19th album, Trouble On Big Beat Street, is out in two weeks, and they've just shared a new song from it, "Crocodile Smile," which honks and skronks in true Ubu style. Here's bandleader David Thomas giving his unique take on the discordant track: “I cross the Mississippi on US49, heading east. In Clarksdale, US49 intersects Highway 61 and that is the Crossroads of blues legend. Robert Johnson supposedly sold his soul to the Devil. Pablo Picasso never sold his soul to the Devil but a black guy from the Delta ... I guess that's gotta be the explanation. Anyway, on one corner is a laundromat, the Devil May Care Quickie-Mat. In the window is a sign. 'Lay It Down And Suds It Up!' Across the road is a Popeyes Fried Chicken. I go in the drive-thru lane and stop at the menu board. A voice from the speaker says, "How-how-how may I serve you?" I order a 3-piece chicken dinner with hush puppies and a Sprite. "How-how-how do you want that chicken?" "Extra crispy," I say, and proceed to the pickup window. Howlin' Wolf leans out with a neatly folded bag dwarfed in his fist. Driving off I remember the pecan pie slice I wanted to order. I park and go inside. Robert Zimmerman and Alan Lomax wait behind the counter. Muddy Waters, wearing the manager's badge, is bussing tables. A song is playing on the jukebox…”
May 14, 20232 yr On 5/8/2023 at 10:26 PM, mrnyc said: fanny aka the all female band you probably never heard of from 1971: well, they're good, but they're no Shaggs http://www.mainstreetpainesville.org/
May 19, 20232 yr RIP Andy Rourke A great, if underrated, bass player and by all accounts a decent guy too. Saw The Smiths three times back in the day and they were tight as a drum live. My hovercraft is full of eels
May 23, 20232 yr On 2/9/2023 at 10:29 AM, Ineffable_Matt said: Boy, all this talk about 35 year old shoes is my favorite part about my favorite music at the moment. 1:31:
June 8, 20232 yr nothing really matters to meeee -- oh wait yes it does. i just love stuff like this -- gearing up for an auction -- its freddy mercury's early notes writing bohemian rhapsody: ‘Mongolian Rhapsody’? Handwritten lyrics suggest Freddie Mercury considered alternative title Oscar Holland, CNN Published 8:55 AM EDT, Thu June 1, 2023 (CNN) — Never-before-seen draft lyrics of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” suggest that Freddie Mercury considered giving his mock-opera anthem a somewhat different title: “Mongolian Rhapsody.” The discovery was made following the emergence of a 15-page folio of lyrics, vocal lines and harmonies handwritten by the singer as he composed his 1975 hit. Near the top of an introductory page, Mercury appears to have crossed out the word “Mongolian” before replacing it with the now-famous “Bohemian.” The draft lyrics reveal other ideas that were seemingly abandoned or reworked, including alternate lines such as, “Time for good-byes now, is this reality.” Elsewhere, an unfamiliar version of the verse beginning “Mama, just killed a man,” instead reads “Mama, there’s a war began; I’ve got to leave tonight.” Another page features a messy profusion of words and phrases, some of which went on to appear in the final song, including “Galileo,” “Bismillah” and “Fandango” (while others like “Matador” and “Belladona” did not). The long-lost notes were written in black and blue ballpoint pen on the pages of a calendar produced by a now-defunct airline, British Midland Airways, in 1974. Queen recorded “Bohemian Rhapsody” the next year. It went on to become the band’s defining hit, topping the charts in countries around the world — including Mercury’s native UK, where it has sold over 2.6 million copies and remains the third best-selling single of all time. more: https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/01/style/freddie-mercury-bohemian-rhapsody-mongolian-lyrics/index.html
June 9, 20232 yr same song, twice. 1) Emmet Cohen, greatest living jazz pianist? Okay, he just is (1:35-3:53). The drummer isn't too bad either; 2) channeling Nancy Wilson, maybe a little? Also I think both singers lose focus just a bit near the end when their improvisatory riffs (as I would call them) start to stray a little 🤔 http://www.mainstreetpainesville.org/
June 13, 20232 yr I saw Bully at MidPoint Music Festival in Cincinnati in 2015. Their album Feels Like was a pretty big hit back then. Not a household name, but certainly in the scene they were pretty big. They just released another full length album two weeks ago called Lucky For You, and they're touring with the Pixies and Franz Ferdinand for a month. Great band that I'm excited to see again tomorrow in Cincinnati.
July 5, 20231 yr Can't believe it but Curtis Frey from Athens, OH died earlier this week. This guy was one of the greatest guitar players and songwriters going. I saw him play live over 20 times. He wrote and played this when he was 18: The guy had, like, total command of the instrument, and the whole of rock & roll history in his playing. You'd hear a bit of everything when he played from Chuck Berry onward. His band was so good that I knew it couldn't last and you were constantly nervous that the next show wasn't going to happen. Here are a few photos I took of the guy:
July 5, 20231 yr On 4/19/2023 at 11:11 AM, Lazarus said: Rogue AI-generated Drake song tops the charts, is taken down by his record company: https://www.axios.com/2023/04/19/ai-fake-drake-weeknd-song-streaming-services-removed So...where would I go to hear this AI-generated song now? There aren't CDs! This is the true beginning of the end of popular music. People are going to say "Alexa, play me a new Frank Sinatra song" and it's going to spontaneously generate a new song. Considering the fact that people don't care about lip syncing and who writes songs as-is, they really aren't going to care five years from now, when living celebrities are going to be a thing of the past. Celebrities themselves will be AI-generated. As will critics. An AI "Drake" song would be detectable because it was too original and alive sounding. Most boring "popular" artist of the century by a good margin.
July 9, 20231 yr here $he comes daaannnggggg — 🙀 Taylor Swift is on track to earn $332 million this year, which could make her the highest-paid entertainer Last Updated: July 8, 2023 at 9:36 a.m. First Published: July 7, 2023 at 4:41 p.m. By Charles Passy MarketWatch did an analysis of all of Swift’s income streams, led by her earnings from the current ‘Eras Tour’ Taylor Swift earned $92 million in 2022, making her one of the top-paid entertainers in the world, according to Forbes. But that’s just a fraction of what she could take home in 2023. Swift’s earnings in 2022 included sales from her album “Midnights,” released that year, plus royalties from previous albums. But Swift didn’t hit the concert circuit last year — and in case you haven’t heard the news, she embarked on a tour this year that could ultimately gross $1 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. more: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/taylor-swift-is-on-track-to-earn-332-million-this-year-c092d155 Taylor Swift performs onstage on the first night of her “Eras Tour” at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on March 31. AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
July 27, 20231 yr happy … yipes … 36th anniversary to one of the very best complete 80s albums. its a pop gem end to end, right up there on the top shelf with cure disintegration, schoolly d’s first 2 records, november coming fire, replacements let be, and maybe a very few others: release date july 27, 1986
July 28, 20231 yr 18 hours ago, mrnyc said: its a pop gem end to end, right up there on the top shelf with cure disintegration, schoolly d’s first 2 records, november coming fire, replacements let be, and maybe a very few others: How do you rank Let It Be, Pleased To Meet Me, and Tim?
July 28, 20231 yr 6 minutes ago, Ineffable_Matt said: How do you rank Let It Be, Pleased To Meet Me, and Tim? 1,4,2 hootenanny is 3
July 28, 20231 yr impressive, swift causes an earthquake — 😂 Taylor Swift fans ‘Shake It Off,’ causing record-breaking seismic activity during Seattle shows By Jillian Sykes and Alli Rosenbloom, CNN Published 8:54 PM EDT, Thu July 27, 2023 CNN — Taylor Swift fans are in their record-breaking era. After two nights of earth-shaking dancing at Swift’s Seattle “Eras” tour concert at Lumen Field, enthusiastic Swifties caused seismic activity equivalent of a 2.3 magnitude earthquake, according to seismologist Jackie Caplan-Auerbach. more: https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/27/entertainment/taylor-swift-seismic-activity/index.html
July 28, 20231 yr 1 hour ago, mrnyc said: 1,4,2 hootenanny is 3 This is the most controversial thing I've seen you post!
August 9, 20231 yr Not strictly music, but highly related. Defined a scene. Jamie Reid: Punk artist behind Sex Pistols record covers dies at 76 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-66450958 My hovercraft is full of eels
August 10, 20231 yr It's pretty obvious that the Korean record companies are paying Rolling Stone and everyone else to promote their crappy cookie-cutter product-placing groups: Also, the recent incarnation of Lollapalooza is an appalling sell-out. Youtube suggested to me the set by yet another mindless group from Korea. In the 90s, the only thing from Asia at Lollapalooza was Shonen Knife. Nobody was selling sports drinks, clothes, fragrances, etc.
August 10, 20231 yr 1 hour ago, GCrites said: Everything SE Asian is big with gamers. I'm seeing a lot of black guys in the blue collar world wearing Japanese anime shirts. Truck drivers, dock workers, etc. This definitely wasn't a widespread thing until recently. When I was a kid I had no idea that the Japanese-made cartoons were Japanese. I mean, the voices didn't go with the mouths, but also, women's boobs aren't missiles.
August 10, 20231 yr I called Anime "That '80s Stuff" because I thought they stopped making it after the '80s.
August 11, 20231 yr 8 hours ago, GCrites said: I called Anime "That '80s Stuff" because I thought they stopped making it after the '80s. Yeah, I have no idea how is now back bigger than ever after having completely disappeared. It would be like Teddy Ruxpin coming back bigger than ever, supplanting real bears. Imagine getting run out of town for insisting that there used to be these things called real bears that Teddy Ruxpin was loosely modeled on.
August 12, 20231 yr On 8/9/2023 at 11:14 PM, Lazarus said: It's pretty obvious that the Korean record companies are paying Rolling Stone and everyone else to promote their crappy cookie-cutter product-placing groups: Also, the recent incarnation of Lollapalooza is an appalling sell-out. Youtube suggested to me the set by yet another mindless group from Korea. In the 90s, the only thing from Asia at Lollapalooza was Shonen Knife. Nobody was selling sports drinks, clothes, fragrances, etc. 😂
August 14, 20231 yr Rap's dilemma - since there are no instruments, there is way less physical ephemera: https://www.wired.com/story/archiving-hip-hop-history/?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us There is no Hard Rap Cafe filled with signed guitars because there are no guitars. There is going to be like zero memory of anything after about 2005 because there are no instruments, no magazines, no ticket stubs, no utility pole flyers - no nothing.
August 14, 20231 yr The flip side of that is that nobody wants to deal with melodies and riffs since most of them have already been come up with and when they run the songs through the copyright algo they come up with violations. Meanwhile before subdivided beats there were technically only 128 different drumbeats so drums are uncopywriteable. So people can do all the drums they want and not have to send a bunch of money to somebody else because of a song they never heard before. That's part of everything is so drum-oriented now.
August 15, 20231 yr 6 hours ago, GCrites said: That's part of everything is so drum-oriented now. All of the catalog-buying means that we're hearing a bunch of adulterous mash-ups because the record company representing a particular rapper also owns the music of Ozzy Osbourne, John Lennon, etc. There is a rap song out now with sing-songy, autotuned rapping to the main riff from "Iron Man" and another dodging around the chords from John Lennon's "Jealous Guy". Both new songs are total crap. They are basically selfies. It's not really true that there are a limited number of "beats", as there are specific drummers who have very distinct sounds, since they typically rush or drag different limbs in different situations. Meg White was probably the last drummer who sounded completely unique. In fact I wouldn't be surprised at all of an AI-generated Meg White sample pack starts being used in rap/dance music. The big problem with rap and dance music is that drum machines are typically pretty locked into straight up/down 4/4. They can't do shuffles and they can't do 12/8 (or maybe they can but the chauch DJ's who create the songs have never read the instruction manual or taken a basic music theory class). Huge chunks of American music up until rap were organized around shuffles (doo-whop, blues, early rock & roll, etc.). People from other countries typically can't play them. It's a uniquely American thing, and it all went away when people started using Japanese-made drum machines, although it faded from rock & roll in the 90s as rock drifted further and further from the blues. People were distracted by his live act and so didn't recognize when Marilyn Manson of all people brought the shuffle back into rock & roll. Many of his hits were sleazy 12/8 shuffles. Him and ZZ Top and The Doors.
August 17, 20231 yr we went to one of the free 50th anniversary of hiphop shows around ny town this past weekend, it was nice, and among many other things nems came out and bing bonged us (nsfw) — also, i played this song at the lake and ducks threw bread at me. 😂
Create an account or sign in to comment