Music Diary

It was an entirely different era … sure there was war and our kids were dying in far off lands for questionable causes, but everything about the way it was handled and perceived was different. And into the mess of the post-Woodstock Zeitgeist Marvin Gaye launched an album that simultaneously soothed and questioned. This week marks forty years since “What’s Going On?” hit record stores and the airwaves. To mark the anniversary, Motown is putting together a 40th Anniversary edition 2-CD/LP ‘super set'(Amazon link). According to his Motown Website: On May 21, 1971, Motown Records released an album unique to…

I have written loads about how music label consolidation has changed the face of the industry over the last decade. We have dropped from having a half-dozen large labels with many second-tier players and indies and other smaller labels, to having four majors … and that is about it. There have been reports about financial problems at two companies – EMI and Warner – potentially causing issues and shifting the power balance to an even smaller set of players. Last week we found out that Warner Music Group was being sold – but also that the outcome wouldn’t shift the…

2011 marks the 30th anniversary of the release of ‘Face Dances’ by The Who, the first studio release after the death of drummer Keith Moon. If there was any real doubt that the band would never recover from the loss, that tepid release with overly constrained Kenny Jones on drums was a pretty clear sign that the magic was gone – though it took the even-worse ‘It’s Hard’ the following year to REALLY kill the band. But even before the release of ‘Face Dances’ there were three signs that the remaining members of the band were headed in different directions:…

Every story starts somewhere … this one starts last Friday night after my kids got home from their middle school dance. They both had a great time with friends and overall had fun. The next morning my younger son said he was a bit disappointed, and when we asked why he said it was because he requested a song that didn’t get played. My older son reminded him that it wasn’t exactly ‘mainstream’, but agreed it would have been a great song for the dance. It reminded me of something I’ve written about before – my tastes in music tend…

When Apple introduced variable pricing, the purpose was for music labels to be able charge more for popular songs … and to push people o buy albums. There was supposed to be a huge library of $0.69 songs … but anyone who has browsed the store knows that most everything is either $0.99 or $1.29 – or is the crap on albums that nobody wants! This morning I hit up Amazon.com as usual (for the free Android app of the day), and I find that Amazon has launched a new $0.69 singles store! As the site says: Instantly buy all…

Last year I reviewed Katy Perry’s CD “Teenage Dream “ and said: Let’s just be honest here: I would bet that Katy Perry spend much more time keeping her body in shape than working on her vocal range, breath control, or pitch. But that is pretty much the point – Katy Perry is a pure pop sugar package: an attractive young woman who gets packed into skimpy, tight-fitting clothes (Daisy-Dukes, bikinis on top?), and sings very catchy songs written by others to work around her limited vocal skills and allow her to perform them live without sounding awful while strutting…

The Beastie Boys landed on the scene in the late 80’s with a massive boom, as their ‘Fight for your right’ became an MTV mainstay after it was released in late 1986 and the song remains fresh and popular today. The Beasties have scored loads of hits and stayed on top of the cross-over rap/rock game for the last 25 years with a fresh and light approach. In early May their latest effort – Hot Sauce Committee, Pt. 2 – will be released, marking their first new material in several years, and their first release since MCA underwent surgery for…

As our schedules around the house have jumped to ludicrous speed recently I have heard less and less pop music … which as you might guess is fine with me. And what we have been listening to is more focused – my kids used their Best Buy gift cards over spring break so we have new stuff from Kid Cudi, Rise Against, Panic! at the Disco, and DeadMau5 rolling. Until the other day … when my younger son was using up the remnants of an iTunes gift card. He bought some GrooveMaker packs for his iPod Touch, a few DeadMau5…

Can it REALLY be 30 years since I saw Rush live in concert for the Moving Pictures tour? I suppose it has been … My love for Rush came not from Geddy Lee’s screeching voice, nor the prototypical sci-fi prog-rock lyrics, and certainly not the popularity of the group with the ‘post Zepplin & Floyd’ crowd in the late 70’s. It was all about the music – and more specifically about the musicianship of the trio. Their songs wove together complex riffs, changing time signatures, and plenty of room for all three musicians to make individual contributions. For me –…