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Post by Kapitan on Sept 14, 2023 12:32:28 GMT
Interesting NYT story about the Stones, and especially the making of this new album. It discusses some of how producer Andrew Watt approached recording the band (mostly live in the studio, guitars panned hard left and right to resemble how they'd hear themselves live; and moving fast with limited tinkering, sticking to just a few takes whenever possible) and the transition to using Steve Jordan as their drummer after Charlie Watts's passing. One other interesting nugget: Mick Jagger says there is no reason to think this will be the last album, even though it had been 17 years since their last new album of originals and the three principals are aged 76-80 right now. He says they're three-quarters through their next album already. (That said, we've seen similar quotes from artists before and nothing comes to fruition.)
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Post by Kapitan on Sept 27, 2023 12:41:13 GMT
Ozzy Osbourne, 74, has postponed and canceled tours and shows in recent years and recently was in the news for announcing after his most recent spinal surgery that he's done having surgeries altogether regardless of his condition, but he announced he plans to record another new album and tour it next year. He says he wants Andrew Watt to produce again. Watt produced Osbourne's past two albums as well as the new Rolling Stones album, the latest Iggy Pop album, and worked on recording with Paul McCartney in some undefined capacity on some unknown project (possibly just Macca's part on the Stones album, though I recall Paul's quotes about Watt being about his--Paul's--ideas).
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Post by Kapitan on Sept 27, 2023 16:33:09 GMT
Springsteen has postponed the remainder of his tour due to a peptic ulser. This is now officially not just the remainder of the September dates (which was the original postponement, resuming in November), but the entirety of his remaining 2023 tour dates, for more treatment of his peptic ulcer. The shows are to be rescheduled for 2024. The unpredictable (or in some cases, entirely predictable...Ozzy) health concerns of aging rock stars certainly make lengthy and advance-planned tours tricky.
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Post by Kapitan on Oct 1, 2023 13:17:08 GMT
And now Aerosmith, which had postponed a few dates early in their alleged farewell tour after Steven Tyler suffered some kind of vocal cord problems, has canceled all remaining 2023 dates, too. They apparently plan to make up the shows next year. So it's a long farewell.
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Post by Kapitan on Oct 19, 2023 11:55:12 GMT
Twenty-five years ago today, the music world experienced a tragedy ... Cher's "Believe" was released to the world, popularizing Antares Audio Technologies' plugin effect/tool Auto-Tune.
OK, I exaggerate with "tragedy." I actually don't have a massive problem with the tool, depending on its use. But I really dislike it in two situations:
1. Use as a prominent effect, such as in "Believe" or famously with T-Pain's music. That is just an aesthetic preference on my end: I don't like the sound of it.
2. Reliance on it by mediocre musicians as opposed to just singing or playing in tune. If you're not good at what you do, I don't care for the idea of using technology to mask your mediocrity.
But as for minor, occasional, usually undetectable pitch correction to this or that note on otherwise great takes, that makes sense and I have no issues with it. Is it any less "honest" than, say, punching in a phrase to accomplish the same result? Nah, that doesn't bother me.
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Post by The Cincinnati Kid on Dec 4, 2023 23:00:57 GMT
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Post by Kapitan on Dec 6, 2023 18:32:31 GMT
Time magazine named Taylor Swift its 2023 Person of the Year.
Before you start throwing darts, a few things are worth considering. First and foremost, the criteria for the award include “the individual who most shaped the headlines over the previous 12 months, for better or for worse.” It's not the Nobel Peace Prize. It's not based on character, on merit, on talent, but on generating headlines. Swift has certainly done that.
Perhaps more controversial, she is not just the first female musician to win it. She is not just the first musician to win it. She is the first person whose primary job is as a professional entertainer of any sort to win it--unless you count politicians as professional entertainers (but I don't think they're very entertaining, myself). That's something, and it might speak as much to the changing nature of what is considered "real" news by major media that Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Michael Jackson, and Madonna never reached the peak where she currently perches.
Politicians, and American presidents in particular, dominate the award's history. Franklin Roosevelt (3x), Harry Truman (2x), Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson (2x), Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan (2x), George HW Bush, Bill Clinton (2x), George W Bush (2x), Barack Obama (2x), Donald Trump, and Joe Biden have all won the award. So, too, have leaders of Iran (including Ayatollah Khomeni), the UK (including Churchill twice and Queen Elizabeth upon her coronation), Russia (including Stalin, twice, but also Kruschev, Andropov, and Gorbachev), Germany (yes, Adolf Hitler, but also a few West German prime ministers and the more recent Angela Merkel of a unified Germany), China, France, Egypt, Ethiopia, Israel, Palestine, and many others.
So, too, have vague groups won it, beginning with 1950's "The American fighting-man." It was followed by winners such as "The Hungarian freedom-fighter (1956)," "U.S. Scientists (1960)," "The Inheritor (1966)," "The Middle Americans (1969)," "American Women (1975)," "The Peacemakers (1993)," "The Whistleblowers (2002)," "The American soldier (2003, and notice the change in terminology)," "The Good Samaritans (2005)," "You (2006)," "The Protester (2011)," "Ebola fighters (2014)," "The Silence Breakers (2017)," and "The Guardians (2018)." Forget vague groups, a few non-people have won, too. "The Computer (1979)," "The Endangered Earth (1988)," and "The Spirit of Ukraine (2022)."
As for Swift's qualifications, she did have three #1 albums this year, a record-breakingly successful concert film, and an unbelievably successful concert tour--to say nothing of her business acumen, being the first artist to succeed with the idea of rerecording and rereleasing her own catalog to gain control of the masters (threatened by Zappa and Prince, at least), as well as negotiating new deals for her merchandise and film release that netted her an even bigger fortune than you might have guessed she could.
And hey, if you're still skeptical, she's also the rare pop star who writes music, sings, and plays instruments (without much focus on dancing or explicitly oversexed presentation).
(It's also worth saying, I don't think anybody much really cares about Time or its Person of the Year. I know I don't. And while I like Swift well enough, I don't much care to champion her. It just struck me as a good time to look into the award, its criteria, its history, and her accomplishments.)
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Dec 9, 2023 18:26:40 GMT
Eat your heart out, Mike & Bruce!
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Post by Kapitan on Dec 10, 2023 13:06:04 GMT
This isn't news, just more commentary on some recent items published as news. The commentary is this: I find it pathetic when professional musicians insult others, especially those who are far more successful than they are. It comes across to me as pathetic insecurity and jealousy. You may recall some months ago, Noel Gallagher (formerly of Oasis) whined that Brian Wilson was overrated. It turns out he doubled down a few days ago, quoted in The Independent as saying of the Beach Boys “I have this theory that they’re only revered because when people used to go to record shops, they were in the ‘B’ section pretty close to The Beatles. And Paul McCartney liked them. That was it.” Damon Albarn, the frontman of Blur, now went off on the Rolling Stones, first about the title of their new album: "“This really annoyed me because my family lives in Hackney and the way they showed up at the Hackney Empire venue really pissed me off. They’ve never did a thing in Hackney, they’ve never played there, never contributed to anything. They just showed up. It’s all nonsense." Then their video: "I listened to their new song and watched this horrible music video showing them at different stages of their lives on billboards. And this young woman objectified. What the hell is this? There’s something completely disconnected." And then more broadly: "“I did all sorts of things, whereas they’ve never been anything other than the Rolling Stones,” he explained. “I love the idea of devoting your life to one thing, in search of the sublime. But the truth is, they’ve became worse. Worse at persisting to stay themselves. That’s something I don’t understand. Making exactly the same music but not that good. There must be no joy in doing something like this.” How pathetic it all is. Bands' album titles have to have some biographical authenticity? You're going to be offended on behalf of a woman who is perfectly capable of choosing whether or not to be in a music video (and whose other roles have been far raunchier--she was a porn actress, for heaven's sake!--than this "objectifying" video)? And lastly, you're going to critique the joylessness of The Rolling Stones!? You mean that band that has been filling stadiums for more than 50 years to play rock and roll that has them dancing and smiling and singing along? That kind of joylessness? Yet, what, Blur is out there creating "the sublime"? While they were of my era, I honestly don't think I know a Blur song. Perhaps I'd know some if I heard them. But I know this, while I've never cared one way or the other about Blur, I do know now I am very much not a Damon Albarn fan. What a pretentious, miserable twit. Perhaps he ought to buddy up with Noel Gallagher. They could whine to one another why the many rock legends above them are somehow not any good.
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Post by kds on Dec 10, 2023 14:19:58 GMT
The only Blur song I know is, I think, just called "Song #2," probably known more for its riff than the song itself. It was pretty big around 1997.
Its pretty sad when musicians have to insult legends just to get a little attention.
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Post by Kapitan on Dec 10, 2023 14:27:37 GMT
The only Blur song I know is, I think, just called "Song #2," probably known more for its riff than the song itself. It was pretty big around 1997. Oh gawd, I just listened to it--or at least about 30 seconds of it. Yeah, I know that song. Now I can say a little more definitively that I do not like Blur. That "whoo-hoo!" was one of the most annoying sounds in my life at that time. Ugh. But I'm sure his work much more sublime than the Rolling Stones.
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Post by Kapitan on Dec 13, 2023 17:42:02 GMT
The named plaintiff in one of two class actions filed against Live Nation (Ticketmaster's parent company) over the ticket-sale process in Taylor Swift "Eras Tour" has filed to have the case dismissed.
What this sounds like to me is, Live Nation has paid her off to settle individually rather than continue with the class action, any settlement of which would obviously cost significantly more.
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Post by Kapitan on Jan 9, 2024 15:12:38 GMT
I think this ought to be very cool: a new Netflix documentary on the making of "We Are the World." The trailer is below; the doc is coming Jan. 29.
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Post by Kapitan on Jan 22, 2024 18:42:30 GMT
Pitchfork, the online music publication that started in Minneapolis in 1996 mostly geared toward indie rock, was sold to global media conglomerate Conde Nast in 2015, and now covers a broad range of music (generally through a heavy-handed dose of progressive politics and culture-war positions), is being folded into another Conde Nast brand, GQ magazine. Conde Nast also laid off more than half of the staff. While it apparently will retain its own brand as a part of the move, a person has to wonder how, and how long, that will last. In my opinion, the site has been far worse since the Conde Nast acquisition, going from a plucky (if arrogant) independent entity to just another corporate one. GQ? That can't help. Interestingly, Pitchfork itself doesn't seem to have published anything about the story. apnews.com/article/music-pitchfork-gq-conde-nast-wintour-media-ecaef9445b5d9f86d9990c181306cb71
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Post by Sheriff John Stone on Feb 3, 2024 15:16:16 GMT
Bruce Springsteen joins Jon Bon Jovi onstage at MusiCares Person Of The Year salute:
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