B12 Solipsism

Brian Eno and David Byrne

Some additional reading June 15th from 08:19 to 08:19:

• Q and A: eMusic CEO Explains Controversial Price Increase, Sony Deal | Epicenter | Wired.com – “artists with albums soon to be sold on eMusic as part of the deal include Captain Beefheart, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Kate Bush, Miles Davis, The Clash, Miles Davis, Franz Ferdinand, Robert Johnson, Kings of Leon, Modest Mouse, Psychedelic Furs, Lou Reed, Patti Smith, Spiritualized and the Stone Roses”

Some additional reading May 27th from 11:09 to 11:13:

• By Joe Hagan: Steve Earle and the Ghost of Townes – Too bad this isn’t online, wanted to excerpt a couple of paragraphs. Good article, but no longer on the newstands, so no way to read it now.”a profile of Steve Earle in the latest issue of ROLLING STONE magazine. Here’s the tagline:

  The country rocker almost died emulating his damaged mentor, Townes Van Zandt. On a new tribute album, Earle looks back.

• Stupid and Contagious: Townes Van Zandt – “Rake” – One of Townes Van Zandt’s greatest of many many great moments? Impossible to say. There are so many classics in his almost peerless catalogue.But playing Steve Earle’s remarkable new reinterpretation of this classic track over and over and over this past week – less ostensibly mournful and a little more revved up perhaps, yet also, strangely, at the same time gloriously sparser than Townes’ original – we’ll say maybe it is!

  Beautiful poetry. Magical music. A superb performance. A pristine piece of perfect art.

  A true classic. If not only for the superb unforgettable line “except for the turning of night into day and the turning of day into cursing'”!
  and
  “I covered my lovers in flowers and wounds”

Earlier today…

Based on courtroom transcripts, Densmore works up a cautionary tale of the ugly collision of art and money. Densmore writes that the opposing legal team attacked his character and labeled him un-American and a communist for not taking the Cadillac deal. "They tried to convince the jury I was an eco-terrorist because I am involved with a handful of peaceful, credible environmental organizations," said Densmore, who was once arrested with Bonnie Raitt for protesting the cutting down of old-growth trees. "I couldn’t believe some of things I heard them say. I felt betrayed, hurt and very alone. . . Now, you can probably google my name and al Qaeda will come up. Great, let’s go to Abu Ghraib! It was really disturbing." During the trial, several musicians  –including Raitt, Neil Young, Eddie Vedder, Tom Petty, Tom Waits and Randy Newman – all showed support for Densmore.

Via:
The Doors’ John Densmore Talks About the Band’s Ugly Feud | Music News | Rolling Stone
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miles davis with john and yoko

Earlier today…

“It was really a bad motherfucker,” Miles Davis wrote in his autobiography of the live band he led in 1969. With somewhat less panache, Davis completists have pegged the group the Lost Quintet, since, unlike the two longstanding Davis five-pieces that preceded it, this one never made a proper studio recording. All of the members– saxophonist Wayne Shorter, keyboardist Chick Corea, bassist Dave Holland and drummer Jack DeJohnette– appear on 1970’s landmark Bitches Brew and other scattered sessions from the time, but only as part of larger ensembles; until now, if you wanted to hear them as a stripped-down unit, you had to consult imports, bootlegs and YouTube. This second installment in the Miles Davis Bootleg Series, which follows an excellent 2011 set focusing on the trumpeter’s prior working band, gives us three complete Lost Quintet gigs, plus the majority of a fourth, on three CDs and one DVD.  It’s a real trove, and not just because this lineup is relatively obscure

Via:
Miles Davis: The Bootleg Series, Volume 2: Live in Europe 1969
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Earlier today…

David Bowie adored Kraftwerk, writing the track V-2 Schneider for his 1977 album Heroes (the band would namecheck him back on Trans-Europe Express). African American DJs also found an odd kinship with the Germans. Keen to find a new musical language, they were familiar with the urban sounds Kraftwerk were using; 1978’s The Robots became particularly influential on the dancefloor, and in the burgeoning B-Boy and breakdancing scenes. Afrika Bambaataa fused the melody of Trans-Europe Express and the rhythm of 1981’s Numbers to create Planet Rock, one of hip-hop’s pioneering tracks. Trailblazing electro group Cybotron used a loop from 1977’s Hall of Mirrors; its founder, Juan Atkins, would create techno, and from there came modern dance culture.

Via:
Why Kraftwerk are still among the world’s most influential band
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My photo, Stereo Sanctity, was used to illustrate this post

Stereo records were introduced in 1958.  The two-channel listening experience (stereophonic sound) proved to be so popular that within ten years almost all record labels stopped producing mono records.

In 1952, Emory Cook introduced a form of stereo record is introduced involving the left and right channels cut into parallel grooves on the record and played with a special double stylus.  About 25 records were made for this system.

In November 1957, Sidney Frey, the president of Westrex, demonstrated stereo records that used the same principles as Blumfein’s 1933 patent.  The following March, the first four mass-produced stereo albums were released to the general public:  Marching Along with the Dukes of Dixieland Volume 3, Lionel by Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra, Johnny Puleo and his Harmonica Gang and a disc of train effects entitled Railroad: Sound of a Vanishing Era.

click here to view:
From Mono to Stereo and Beyond, Part 2 | The Science of Rock ‘n’ Roll

automatically created via Delicious and IFTTT

Earlier, I read…

Even in an arena it was a cozy event. Dozens of luminaries from rock, soul and country — among them Gregg Allman, Jakob Dylan, Bruce Hornsby, Mavis Staples, John Prine, Joan Osborne, John Hiatt, Jorma Kaukonen and Ray La Montagne — were backed by the Levon Helm Band. It’s now led by the guitarist and fiddler Larry Campbell and, Mr. Campbell announced, renamed the Midnight Ramble Band. Fondly, fervently and with few displays of vanity, they sang Band songs and songs from Mr. Helm’s 2007 solo album, “Dirt Farmer” …Roger Waters — the non-American on the bill — gave another “Dirt Farmer” song, “Wide River to Cross,” the kind of stately, overwhelming crescendos he used in Pink Floyd. Mr. Waters had brought a red baseball cap that Mr. Helm impulsively gave him in 1990, and it hung on a microphone stand — a relic and down-home talisman — as the entire lineup gathered to sing “The Weight,” belting its tales of comic woe like a family anthem.

Via:
‘Love for Levon,’ Tribute to Helm at Izod Center – NYTimes.com
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IN 1948, a radio repairman named Leo Fender took a piece of ash, bolted on a length of maple and attached an electronic transducer.
You know the rest, even if you don’t know you know the rest.

You’ve heard it — in the guitar riffs of Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix, George Harrison, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend, Bruce Springsteen, Mark Knopfler, Kurt Cobain and on and on.

It’s the sound of a Fender electric guitar. Mr. Fender’s company, now known as the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, is the world’s largest maker of guitars. Its Stratocaster, which made its debut in 1954, is still a top seller. For many, the Strat’s cutting tone and sexy, double-cutaway curves mean rock ’n’ roll.

Via:
Fender Aims to Stay Plugged In Amid Changing Music Trends – NYTimes.com