Salon.com > Music http://www.salon.com Fri, 04 Jan 2013 03:11:02 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Must-see morning clip http://www.salon.com/2013/01/03/must_see_morning_clip_83/ http://www.salon.com/2013/01/03/must_see_morning_clip_83/#comments Thu, 03 Jan 2013 14:05:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13160653 Comedian Fred Armisen dropped by "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" last night to promote the season premiere of his award-winning sketch show,"Portlandia." The two SNL comedians ended up performing a sketch of their own, rehearsing bits from their old bands, like Little Baby Sparrows, Nothingness and Birds Tree:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/01/03/must_see_morning_clip_83/feed/ 0 “Tennessee Waltz” singer Patti Page dies at 85 http://www.salon.com/2013/01/02/tennessee_waltz_singer_patti_page_dies_at_85_2/ http://www.salon.com/2013/01/02/tennessee_waltz_singer_patti_page_dies_at_85_2/#comments Wed, 02 Jan 2013 22:46:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13160266 NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Unforgettable songs like "Tennessee Waltz" and "(How Much Is That) Doggie in the Window" made Patti Page the best-selling female singer of the 1950s and a star who would spend much of the rest of her life traveling the world.

When unspecified health problems finally stopped her decades of touring, though, Page wrote a sad-but-resolute letter to her fans late last year about the change.

"Although I feel I still have the voice God gave me, physical impairments are preventing me from using that voice as I had for so many years," Page wrote. "It is only He who knows what the future holds."

Page died on New Year's Day in Encinitas, Calif., according to publicist Schatzi Hageman, ending one of pop music's most diverse careers. She was 85 and just five weeks away from being honored at the Grammy Awards with a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Recording Academy.

Page achieved several career milestones in American pop culture, but she'll be remembered for indelible hits that crossed the artificial categorizations of music and remained atop the charts for months to reach a truly national audience.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/01/02/tennessee_waltz_singer_patti_page_dies_at_85_2/feed/ 0 Girl Talk says next album will be “harder hitting” than previous ones http://www.salon.com/2013/01/02/girl_talk_says_next_album_will_be_harder_hitting_than_previous_ones/ http://www.salon.com/2013/01/02/girl_talk_says_next_album_will_be_harder_hitting_than_previous_ones/#comments Wed, 02 Jan 2013 21:26:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13159977 In an interview published today on MTV Hive, music producer and mashup artist Greg Gillis, aka Girl Talk, revealed plans for his next album, which he says "sounds more inspired by traditional production." And although Gillis may arguably be more mainstream than electronica great DJ Shadow, his upcoming work will emulate the music producers who came before him. "It’s especially difficult using samples but the classic heroes of that world, the DJ Shadows, have it; it’s just immediate. So that’s always what I’m aiming for," he says.

Girl Talk on his next challenge:

I feel like the next level for me isn’t adding live instruments, it’s using samples in a different way. I’m diving into slightly more obscure samples and using popular samples in different ways and cutting them up a bit more. I’m taking a break from touring and for the first time ever I’m making music that’s not concerned with the live show, [which] is liberating. Working on it gets me so fired up. I’ve been obsessed with it. A lot of these ideas have been piling up for years.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/01/02/girl_talk_says_next_album_will_be_harder_hitting_than_previous_ones/feed/ 1 Record reviews: Who needs them? http://www.salon.com/2013/01/01/record_reviews_who_needs_them/ http://www.salon.com/2013/01/01/record_reviews_who_needs_them/#comments Tue, 01 Jan 2013 22:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13156233 I could be wrong, but – adding together a decade of Trouser Press magazine, five Trouser Press Record Guides and a whole lot of freelance writing -- I may have reviewed as many albums as any American rock critic this side of Bob Christgau. From adroit to inept, I’ve offered my full faith and credit to a small percentage of them, attacked some (with the fierce indignation generally reserved for orphan-robbers, World Series goats and career criminals) and juggled the rest. I suppose I’ve shared a few valuable insights, but no doubt just as often I’ve come up empty, papering over ambivalence with utilitarian description.

How often was I right? Even if we can stipulate that there is a “right,” it’s hard to say, since the inconstancy of life synchs unreliably with value judgments that have been frozen in time. What was on the money in 1978 may seem horribly naïve in 1988 and condescending by 2008. Plus, a critic continues to hear and learn long after committing an appraisal to print, and that both alters the context and expands culture’s possibilities. When it comes to records that no longer live clearly in my memory, even going back for a refresher listen promises only a slim chance of summoning up enough sense of who I was and what I knew at the time to extrapolate what I was feeling when I wrote what I did.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/01/01/record_reviews_who_needs_them/feed/ 31 Bono spends Christmas Eve busking http://www.salon.com/2012/12/26/bono_spends_christmas_eve_busking/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/26/bono_spends_christmas_eve_busking/#comments Wed, 26 Dec 2012 20:50:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13155124

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/26/bono_spends_christmas_eve_busking/feed/ 1 Did the American songbook kill jazz? http://www.salon.com/2012/12/24/did_the_american_songbook_kill_jazz/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/24/did_the_american_songbook_kill_jazz/#comments Mon, 24 Dec 2012 18:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13150215 At first, it sounds like a mistake: The opening notes are blurred, like something has gone a bit wrong in either the playing or the recording. But after a few bars, we realize that these bent tones from a horn — with just a stark bass and drum behind them — are outlining one of the most hallowed of American standards. Tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins is at the Village Vanguard, bashing through “What Is This Thing Called Love?” as if he could anticipate the punk rock that would come to this same neighborhood 20 years later. It’s an elegant song by Cole Porter, reduced to its skeleton. And “All the Things You Are” and “Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise” get the same kind of rough, raw, harmonically daring treatment.

It’s the kind of thing jazz can do at its best — but something the music may be doing less and less of. Or too often and not well enough. The various factions that make up the jazz world — audiences, musician, writers, plus the teachers and students who seem to be the only groups growing in number — don’t have a consensus on the matter. But the jazz fraternity seems to know two things: Despite continued artistic quality, the audience around the music is dying. And the choice of what songs jazz musicians play — and what they don’t play — may be part of the problem.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/24/did_the_american_songbook_kill_jazz/feed/ 21 Band of Horses have never heard of Neil Young http://www.salon.com/2012/12/22/band_of_horses_have_never_heard_of_neil_young/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/22/band_of_horses_have_never_heard_of_neil_young/#comments Sat, 22 Dec 2012 13:59:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13150014

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/22/band_of_horses_have_never_heard_of_neil_young/feed/ 18 Study: Solo rock stars die young http://www.salon.com/2012/12/21/study_solo_rock_stars_die_young/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/21/study_solo_rock_stars_die_young/#comments Fri, 21 Dec 2012 19:15:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13151665 Pacific Standard Do you dream of being a rock star? Do you hope to live a long life?

If so, you’d better start prioritizing—or, at the very least, join a band. Because from Elvis Presley to Amy Winehouse, solo pop superstars are disproportionately likely to die young (although not necessarily at age 27).

That’s one finding of a study just published in the British journal BMJ Open,which takes a close look at mortality among rock and pop icons of the past half-century. And just like the rest of us, it finds, famous musicians are more likely to die from substance abuse if they had troubled childhoods.

A team of researchers led by Mark Bellis, director of the Centre for Public Health at Liverpool John Moores University, looked at the mortality rates and childhood experiences of 1,489 rock and pop stars who gained fame between 1956 and 2006. Comparisons were made across the decades, and between European and American musicians.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/21/study_solo_rock_stars_die_young/feed/ 3 My junkie friend secretly died http://www.salon.com/2012/12/21/my_junkie_friend_secretly_died/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/21/my_junkie_friend_secretly_died/#comments Fri, 21 Dec 2012 01:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13151300 Hi Cary,

I have never written a letter seeking advice from a columnist before, but since I think you are the best advice columnist that has ever lived, and since you are quite well and alive, I thought I would ask for your advice today.

I recently had a friend die, a friend that I had not seen in over a decade, but whom, nonetheless, I had remained quasi-close to during most of that time. He was a musician, as am I, and so we both influenced each other at times although I consider him my mentor still, to this day. He taught me a great deal about old-time country music, from Dock Boggs to the Carter Family; from Doc Watson to Norman Blake. He was a god to me.

And he was also a junkie.

He quit junk a few years after I met him -- we all knew this. I did not find out until later that he had been smoking crack to keep himself "straight," however.

I have never so much as more than smoked a joint in my life, so you can imagine how distraught I was the first time I learned that my friend, "Nephew" Jimmy, was a junkie. One night, as I remember, at some party, I actually begged him on my knees in front of all of our friends, hysterical and in tears, to stop shooting smack. Silly me.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/21/my_junkie_friend_secretly_died/feed/ 14 The Black Keys’ Patrick Carney to host radio show http://www.salon.com/2012/12/19/the_black_keys_patrick_carney_to_host_radio_show/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/19/the_black_keys_patrick_carney_to_host_radio_show/#comments Wed, 19 Dec 2012 20:18:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13150053 NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Have you ever wanted to sit down and have a long conversation about music with The Black Keys? Well, that's probably not going to happen. But SiriusXM is offering a glimpse into the duo's world as Patrick Carney debuts a new radio show.

The drummer of the Grammy Award winners will host "Serious Boredom," a new free-form monthly show on the satellite radio provider's SiriusXMU channel.

"They asked me if I was interested in doing the show," Carney said in a phone interview. "It never really crossed my mind, but I decided I wanted to do it, to give it a shot. I don't have any format. I can play whatever I want. Being able to play stuff that's interesting to Dan (Auerbach) and I and stuff I'm into at the moment. I think it's a cool opportunity."

Carney kicks off the show at 8 p.m. EST Thursday with music he was into in high school, a mix of standard indie rock leavened with Captain Beefheart. Carney hopes to have a theme for each show, airing at 8 on the first Thursday of each month beginning in January, that revolves around a label or a city.

The 32-year-old Nashville resident wants to emulate the adventurousness of the college radio format without the long-windedness of its DJs.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/19/the_black_keys_patrick_carney_to_host_radio_show/feed/ 0 Ke$ha says that her song “Die Young” is “now inappropriate” http://www.salon.com/2012/12/19/keha_says_that_her_song_die_young_is_now_inappropriate/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/19/keha_says_that_her_song_die_young_is_now_inappropriate/#comments Wed, 19 Dec 2012 19:56:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13150011 NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Ke$ha says she understands her hit song "Die Young" "is now inappropriate" following the shootings in Newtown, Conn.

The pop singer said in a Twitter post Tuesday night that she's "so so so sorry" for anyone affected by the tragedy.

Earlier Tuesday, Ke$ha tweeted that she had her own issues with "Die Young" due to the lyrics, but that she was "FORCED TO" sing them. That tweet was deleted a short time later.

Ke$ha's spokesman said the 25-year-old had no comment Wednesday morning.

"Die Young" is intended as a party anthem and is No. 3 on this week's Billboard Hot 100 chart. But radio stations began to pull it and other songs with potentially upsetting lyrics after 27 people, including 20 children, were killed Friday at an elementary school.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/19/keha_says_that_her_song_die_young_is_now_inappropriate/feed/ 2 Cassadee Pope wins Season 3 of “The Voice” http://www.salon.com/2012/12/19/cassadee_pope_wins_season_3_of_the_voice/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/19/cassadee_pope_wins_season_3_of_the_voice/#comments Wed, 19 Dec 2012 15:45:00 +0000 http://http://www.salon.com/2012/12/19/cassadee_pope_wins_season_3_of_the_voice/ NEW YORK (AP) — Cassadee Pope, who was country singer Blake Shelton's protege on the third season of NBC's "The Voice," has won the show's competition.

The 23-year-old singer is stepping out into a solo career after performing with a band called Hey Monday. Her victory over Scottish native Terry McDermott and long-bearded Nicholas David was announced at the end of a two-hour show Tuesday.

"The Voice" has grown into a hit for NBC and was the key factor in the network's surprising success this fall.

The show's status was affirmed by the stream of hitmakers who performed on the finale. They included Rihanna, Bruno Mars, the Killers, Smokey Robinson and Peter Frampton.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/19/cassadee_pope_wins_season_3_of_the_voice/feed/ 2 Nirvana without Kurt is not Nirvana! http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/nirvana_without_kurt_is_not_nirvana/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/nirvana_without_kurt_is_not_nirvana/#comments Mon, 17 Dec 2012 20:45:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13147201 Of all the bands that seemed ripe for reunion, Nirvana had to be near the bottom of the list: The death of Kurt Cobain in 1994 left the trio without a singer, songwriter or guitarist, and replacing him, really, was unimaginable.

And yet there were Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic and touring guitarist Pat Smear, onstage at Madison Square Garden last week with substitute frontman Paul McCartney, storming through a new song called “Cut Me Some Slack” — the first time the surviving members of Nirvana had performed together in public since Cobain’s suicide. And there they were again, on “Saturday Night Live,” in what seemed more like a plug for Grohl’s upcoming documentary “Sound City,” about the beloved (defunct) Los Angeles recording studio of the same name. (“Cut Me Some Slack” is on the soundtrack, don’t you know, and — what a coincidence! — available for purchase right now.)

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/nirvana_without_kurt_is_not_nirvana/feed/ 32 Amy Winehouse inquest to be heard again http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/amy_winehouse_inquest_to_be_heard_again_2/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/amy_winehouse_inquest_to_be_heard_again_2/#comments Mon, 17 Dec 2012 18:04:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13147594 LONDON (AP) -- The inquest into the death of soul singer Amy Winehouse was overseen by a coroner who lacked the proper qualifications and must be heard again next month, officials said Monday.

Assistant deputy coroner Suzanne Greenaway, who handled the inquest, resigned in November 2011 after her qualifications were questioned.

Camden Council said a new hearing has been scheduled on Jan. 8.

"The inquest into the death of Amy Winehouse had not technically been heard," it said in a statement.

Winehouse was found dead in her London home in July 2011 at age 27. In an inquest in October 2011, Greenaway ruled that the "Back to Black" singer had died of accidental alcohol poisoning.

Greenaway had been appointed an assistant deputy coroner in London in 2009 by her husband, Andrew Reid, the coroner for inner north London. But she resigned after authorities learned she had not been a registered U.K. lawyer for five years as required by the rules.

She had practiced law for a decade in her native Australia.

Reid was suspended, and he resigned earlier this month.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/17/amy_winehouse_inquest_to_be_heard_again_2/feed/ 0 Ben Folds Five do not care about cool http://www.salon.com/2012/12/15/ben_folds_five_do_not_care_about_cool/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/15/ben_folds_five_do_not_care_about_cool/#comments Sat, 15 Dec 2012 14:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13125308

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/15/ben_folds_five_do_not_care_about_cool/feed/ 0 Carole King first woman to win Library of Congress’ Gershwin Prize http://www.salon.com/2012/12/13/us_library_to_honor_carole_king_with_music_prize/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/13/us_library_to_honor_carole_king_with_music_prize/#comments Thu, 13 Dec 2012 12:46:37 +0000 http://http://www.salon.com/2012/12/13/us_library_to_honor_carole_king_with_music_prize/ WASHINGTON (AP) — Carole King has a friend in the Library of Congress. She's the first woman to win the library's Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.

In her five decades of songwriting, King's hits have included "You've Got a Friend," ''So Far Away" and "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman." The library said Thursday that King will be the fifth person to receive the prize. Prior recipients include Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney.

Librarian of Congress James Billington says King's work has been recorded by many artists to communicate universal human emotions like love, joy and pain.

King will receive the prize in the spring and says in a statement that she looks forward to performing in Washington. Honorees are typically saluted at the White House.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/13/us_library_to_honor_carole_king_with_music_prize/feed/ 0 Dave Brubeck is good for your brain http://www.salon.com/2012/12/13/dave_brubeck_is_good_for_your_brain/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/13/dave_brubeck_is_good_for_your_brain/#comments Thu, 13 Dec 2012 17:37:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13123978 Scientific American Jazz legend Dave Brubeck died December 5, just one day before his 92nd birthday. The pianist and composer was an innovator, especially when it came to combining rhythms and meters in new ways. "He sort of tired of the traditional patterns of jazz," says Patrick Langham, a saxophonist and faculty member of the Brubeck Institute at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif.

Time Out, the hit 1959 album by the Dave Brubeck Quartet, was one of the first popular jazz works to explore meters beyond the traditional 4/4 and 3/4. (The first number, which is the top number of the time signature in sheet music, represents the number of beats in the measure, and the second number represents the note value that receives one beat. 4/4 means that there are four beats and a quarter note lasts for one beat, yielding four quarter notes in each measure.) "Take Five" and "Blue Rondo a la Turk," two of Brubeck's most popular works, are both on Time Out.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/13/dave_brubeck_is_good_for_your_brain/feed/ 2 “It’s only Sandy wasteland”: 50 years’ worth of rock and pop acts come together for disaster relief http://www.salon.com/2012/12/13/its_only_sandy_wasteland_50_years_worth_of_rock_and_pop_acts_come_together_for_disaster_relief/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/13/its_only_sandy_wasteland_50_years_worth_of_rock_and_pop_acts_come_together_for_disaster_relief/#comments Thu, 13 Dec 2012 12:47:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13123600 Last night in New York, Madison Square Garden rocked to benefit the victims of Hurricane Sandy in New York and New Jersey with an enormous roster of veteran talent that one friend jokingly described as AARP's A-list (Alicia Keys and Kanye West excepted). The playlist favored the classics — the Stones, a Beatle, the remaining two members of the Who, but Pete Townshend was mindful to amend his timeless anthem to address their reason for being there: "It's only Sandy wasteland." And the performers hit all the right notes — moving (Billy Joel, below, will still melt even the most cynical New York crowd with "New York State of Mind"), rousing (Jersey guys Bruce and JBJ, Alicia Keys closing the concert, leading everyone in "Empire State of Mind II"), surprising (Michael Stipe pops in on a solo acoustic Chris Martin) — and one deeply odd one, the much anticipated mashup of a Beatle knight, Sir Paul McCartney, and two grunge-y Nirvanans, who performed a song they wrote together. It was not exactly inspiring. Just ... weird. The concert was live broadcast on TV and livestreamed on YouTube last night.

Here, the highlights:

Chris Martin got a surprise, when Michael Stipe popped in for a duet:  "Losing My Religion."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/13/its_only_sandy_wasteland_50_years_worth_of_rock_and_pop_acts_come_together_for_disaster_relief/feed/ 2 Nirvana Beatles songs http://www.salon.com/2012/12/12/nirvana_beatles_songs/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/12/nirvana_beatles_songs/#comments Wed, 12 Dec 2012 17:30:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13122807 Twitter, amused at the prospect of the Beatles' Paul McCartney taking the spot of the late Kurt Cobain at a Nirvana reunion concert tonight, has created #nirvanabeatlessongs. Here are some of the best:

[embed_tweet id="278909421462106112"]

[embed_tweet id="278911933908938752"]

[embed_tweet id="278908293949300736"]

[embed_tweet id="278904894000345089"]

[embed_tweet id="278902303782752257"]

[embed_tweet id="278901710532014081"]

[embed_tweet id="278898552455983104"]

[embed_tweet id="278950722874261504"]

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/12/nirvana_beatles_songs/feed/ 0 Paul McCartney to front Nirvana reunion http://www.salon.com/2012/12/12/paul_mccartney_to_front_nirvana_reunion/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/12/paul_mccartney_to_front_nirvana_reunion/#comments Wed, 12 Dec 2012 16:15:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13122701 The Sun newspaper is reporting that Paul McCartney will replace Kurt Cobain and lead a Nirvana reunion this evening at the Hurricane Sandy benefit concert in New York.

It would be the first show that the surviving members of the pioneering alt-rock band in almost 20 years, since Cobain's 1994 suicide. They will reportedly debut a new song.

McCartney told the paper he called Grohl recently, and the Foo Fighters frontman invited him to “jam with some mates.”

According to the Sun:

Macca had suggested they “just make something up” and found himself playing with Grohl on drums, bassist Krist, 47, and unofficial fourth Nirvana member Pat Smear, 53.

He said: “I didn’t really know who they were. They are saying how good it is to be back together. I said ‘Whoa? You guys haven’t played together for all that time?

“And somebody whispered to me ‘That’s Nirvana. You’re Kurt.’ I couldn’t believe it.”

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