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Tuesday, February 10, 2009

What Happened to Thursday Thirteen?

A question just popped up in my mind for some reason: Whatever happened to the home page for the meme Thursday Thirteen? I remember when the originator of the meme was retiring she sold the rights to the name to two other people, but now it seems to be gone. What's the deal? I know people still continue doing it on Thursday, I have when I remember, but there seems to be no official hub for it anymore.

Monday, February 09, 2009

Green Day Album Coming

The new Green Day album 21st Century Breakdown is coming in May. For more about it you can go here. Until than here's an really early video of Green Day performing the Who's "My Generation."

Sunday, February 08, 2009

Sick Again

Image by Jonathan D. Blundell via Flickr

I just got over a cold a few weeks back. I sure have known this would happen, everyone at work has been sick off and on for the past month. I woke up with my cold back and feeling terrible. Luckily today was my day off and all I've done is lay on the couch sleeping. I'm up now trying to get something/anything accomplished. Tonight is the Grammys, I may try to watch them, even though most of the time they go with the safe route for the winner.

Whitney Houston Making Comeback

After years where I imagined one day opening a paper or logging onto the computer and reading that Whitney Houston had died of a drug overdose it seems she's changed her path of self destruction and is on the mend. Read about her triumphant return at a pre-Grammy party here.
I remember hearing Whitney back before she became the huge star she was destined to be and telling my friends about her. I don't know if it was her voice or that fact that she was so beautiful and I think I was a little bit in love with her, but I've always been a fan of Whitney. This video is from the movie The Bodyguard which is one of my favorite movies. I know it's not a great movie, but I love this movie for the characters. This song was originally written by Dolly Parton but has pretty much become associated with Whitney now.

Dave Robicheaux Movie

One of my favorite writers James Lee Burkes' series starring New Iberia policeman Dave Robicheaux is coming to the big screen. The main character is going to be played by Tommy Lee Jones. Read more about it here.

Saturday, February 07, 2009

Happy Birthday Starlight

Starlight over at Here Comes A Storm In The Form of A Girl has a birthday on Sunday. It's strange how you can make friends on this thing. You never meet them but you consider them a friend. So Happy Birthday to you Starlight.

And for your birthday I could only think of one thing, seeing as how much you like U2. This is the video from their new single "Get On Your Boots."

The next is a video of Bono talking about writing:

Now what I've tried to do is find some U2 songs that you might not have heard. (Probably little chance of that since you're such a big fan, but these are songs that aren't found on any of their "official" albums.)

First up is "Stand By Me" which was originally done by Ben E. King and one of my favorite songs of all time.

Stand | Music Codes

Now we present "Redemption Song" originally by Bob Marley.

Redemption Song | Music Codes

And finally we have the Monkees' "Daydream Believer."

Daydream Believer | Music Codes

Happy Birthday Starlight!

Dewey Martin Dies

Dewey Martin died Sunday. He was 68 years old. Dewey was the drummer for Buffalo Springfield. He also did session work for the Monkees while he was with Springfield. After the group broke up he formed a new version of the group and performed over the years. In the eighties he teamed up with the former bassist of the group and they toured as Buffalo Springfield Revisited.

Friday, February 06, 2009

Bon Jovi Comes To Jazz Fest

Bon Jovi has just been added to the line up of this year's Jazz and Heritage Festival. I like Bon Jovi and welcome the chance to see him, but it brings up the problem I have with the way the Fest is going. The Festival is supposed to honor the musical heritage of New Orleans. You don't have to be a New Orleans act but you should at least has some sort of musical ties or musical kinship to the cities vast musical history. In the last half decade the Fest is becoming more concerned with landing big name acts that will draw the crowds. The Jazz Fest used to be unique among the many other big fests throughout the country, but it's becoming just one more a group.

This tears me in two directions. I like the big names, but I wish that the Fest could concretrate more on the smaller acts. I know it's not feasible but I can wish. It's a sort of Catch 22, they need the big names to get people through the gates. I just dont want them losing too much of the local flavor.

Old School Fridays: Songs by New Edition or New Editions Mermbers

I have a confession to make. I was never a fan of New Edition. I can't say that I disliked them. They were one of those groups that really never registered on my radar for some reason. I knew of them, but really can't say I was that familiar with their music. So I've done a little research and I present "Earth Angel" by New Edition. This was a remake of the classic doo-wop song by the Penguins. It was originally done for the sound track to the movie Karate Kid II. I'm a fan of the original of this song and I like the remake.

This meme was developed by Marvalus View and Ms. Grapevine. The rules are simple:

1. Anyone can participate; any music genre
2. Old School is defined as music created before 1999
3. No offensive words allowed, please use edited radio version
4. Post a video of your favorite Old School song to take us back down memory lane
5. Add your name to the meme list so that others can check you out
6. Have fun & don't forget to leave comments for other participants

Thursday, February 05, 2009

Bonnaroo This Year

Image via Wikipedia

It's been a few years since I went to the Bonnaroo Music Festival held right outside Manchester, Tennessee. It's four days of camping out and great music. I haven't been able to go again because it's always scheduled for Father's Day weekend and where I work Father's Day is like a second Christmas and no one can get off that weekend.

Well, this year Bonnaroo is June 11-14 and Father's Day is the twentieth something of June. So I can go if I want. The line up is pretty good. Bruce Springsteen, Wilco, Lucinda Williams, Neko Case, Tift Merrit, Jenny Lewis and a host of others will be there. Tickets are around $250, but they even offer a payment plan this year.

So I just have to decide if I want to go or not.

Bo Bice

I started watching American Idol with Season Four, probably about half way through the final twelve. That was the one that came down to Bo Bice and Carrie Underwood. We all know how that ended up. I remember liking Bo when I watched it, but at that point American Idol was still kind of leery of having a "rocker" on the show.

It's obvious that you don't have to be the winner of American Idol to get an album. Some runner-ups are even doing better than the winners of their season. So Bo got his album deal and his first album came out the same day Carrie's first album was released. Her album went on to sell millions of copies, while I'm not sure how many his did. I know it wasn't all that much. His producers basically presented a watered down version of his "rock" roots. I didn't buy it, but I heard some stuff from it and wasn't that impressed.

His second album came out last year. The exact same day that Carrie released her second album. I'm sure it wasn't planned that way, but it was kind of weird. Again her album got all the reviews and notice, while his sat quietly on the shelf. Except this time the sound was different. I don't know if he stepped forward or the producers decided to let him be more of himself, but his country rock side took a step forward. I picked up his album just recently, after I saw him perform on some show and liked what I saw. His new album is very good. It's in the tradition of southern country rock, from bands like Skynrd to Allman Brothers.

This gives me some hope for Taylor Hicks next album. I feel like they did the same thing on his first album after his win. It was over produced and I felt like Taylor got lost in the mix. I'm hoping his second album he can step forward and make it his own.

Anyways here is Bo Bice's song "Witness" from his second album See The Light.

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Pat Green

I just discovered this singer. He started out as a roots singer and has moved into, if not country mainstream, at least on the fringes of it. His last album made a dent in the country world and his newest is moving up the charts. I really like this song, it reminds me of my Dad. The video sound isn't the best, it sounds like the clip was taken from a television with some of the tinny sound that you hear coming from a tv, but it still is pretty good.

Obama Does Something Bush Never Did

Yesterday President Obama did something the President Bush never did. He admitted he made a mistake. After Tom Daschle redrew his nomination for health and human resource secretary President Obama said "I screwed up." He went on to explain "And I take responsibility for it and we're going to make sure we fix it so it doesn't happen again." In eight years in office Bush never admitted to any mistakes. Even after not finding WMD in Iraq it wasn't his mistake. Bush never did anything he had to apologize for, at least in his own eyes. I like the fact that we have a President that can admit to making a mistake. As President he's bound to make some. Admit it and move on. Which is what he's done.

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

The Day The Music Died Feb 3, 1959

Image via Wikipedia

I posted about this a week or two ago, but today is the actual anniversary of the day the plane crashed in Iows after leaving a concert for the Winter Dance Party tour. Along with Buddy was Ritchie Valens, the Big Booper and the pilot Roger Peterson. Buddy was only married six months and his wife was expecting their first child. Not long after the crash his wife suffered a miscarriage.

Buddy was born in Lubbock Texas in 1936. Buddy formed a band with three high school friends that they called the Crickets. They went to Clovis New Mexico to record their first songs. Coral Records signed the group and than later signed Buddy to a solo contract also, having him appear on the label in two different versions.

At that time rock and roll singers went in the studio and pretty much recorded what their producers wanted them to. They did little of their own writing and arranging. Buddy changed all that. He wrote his own music and helped produce it in the studio. He was one of the first in rock and roll to do this.

Buddy recorded so much material that for years after his death his record company was able to continue to issue new material. The quality of this material wasn't always the best and the record company was known to add things that Buddy didn't have in the original.

Years back I found a five album collection calling itself the Complete Buddy Holly. I'm not sure if it is the definite collection but it contains a rich source of songs by the singer. Recently they issued a new collection of little heard stuff, including what is known as The Apartment Songs. These are songs Buddy was taping himself working on at his apartment in the months before his death.

Buddy only performed for a few years before his death but his impact on music cannot be overstated. His influence has been felt throughout the music industry and still reverberates today.

That

Monday, February 02, 2009

Voices to hear

It's been awhile since I've done much posting at my music site Voices to hear, but I'm going to try to rectify that. I've created a new feature over there called "Song of the Week" and hope to post a song every week by some lesser known musicians. And of course there's all the old features that I hope to get back to.

Sunday, February 01, 2009

Neil Young and A Day In The Life

I was just surfing around and found this. The Beatles never preformed this song live, by the time they recorded it they were pretty much done with live shows for the most part (save for a rooftop concert a few years later). Neil Young is one of those performers that refuses to be pigeonholed. Just when you think you know what he's up to he does a complete 180 and is doing something completely different. How many other performers have been sued by their record company because he wasn't delivering "Neil Young" material?

Bob Dylan and Will.I.Am Commercial

I didn't watch that much of the game. I didn't get off work until the second quarter was over half over with. I sat down and watched because I didn't want to miss the Half Time show and I wanted to see some of the commercials. During the Super Bowl the ad companies roll out their most inventive commercials. Maybe they did during other parts of the game, but from what I saw I wasn't that impressed. After halftime I didn't watch anymore of the game. I had it on while I was in the other room on the computer so I listened to it.

I missed this commercial when it came on but I had already read about it so I was intrigued. I love this version of the song between these two singers, Dylan and Will.I.Am. I'm always a little...I'm not sure exactly what, somewhat taken aback I guess, when I hear a song from someone like Dylan used as a commercial. It was Dylan in the ad and he agreed so I can't complain too much, he can use his songs however he wants. And now days music is used to sell everything. I just guess I still have some of that feeling that some songs shouldn't be used to sell things. But I really do like this song.

Bruce at Half Time!

You know I was going to post it. This is one of the most amazing twelve minutes of music. Bruce managed to squeeze all the excitement of one of his three hour shows into a little over ten minutes.

The video is divided into two parts. This is Part One:

And this is Part Two:

Jennifer Hudson

This woman has endured more than her share of heartache recently but she came out and did a superb version of the song.

Bruce at the SuperBowl

Now that was a half time show.

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