I fell in love with Zoey Deschanel's voice the moment she sang a duet from the shower with Will Ferrell in Elf. She has been the prettier half of She & Him for a few years now. M. Ward has been the steady musician but their paths crossed on a movie set and it just became the perfect opportunity for collaboration.
Then get yourself in the Christmas spirit by watching them perform "The Christmas Waltz" on the Tonight Show. Their look,performance and stylings take you back to the 1950s Christmas time. The Kodachrome colors and coziness of sitting close in a T-Bird blend through M. Ward's guitar and Zoey's vocals. She & Him perform "The Christmas Waltz" on The Tonight Show
I fell in love with Zoey Deschanel's voice the moment she sang a duet from the shower with Will Ferrell in Elf. She has been the prettier half of She & Him for a few years now. M. Ward has been the steady musician but their paths crossed on a movie set and it just became the perfect opportunity for collaboration.
Then get yourself in the Christmas spirit by watching them perform "The Christmas Waltz" on the Tonight Show. Their look,performance and stylings take you back to the 1950s Christmas time. The Kodachrome colors and coziness of sitting close in a T-Bird blend through M. Ward's guitar and Zoey's vocals. She & Him perform "The Christmas Waltz" on The Tonight Show
Siamese Dream is arguably the best Smashing Pumpkins album and is certainly vintage Pumpkins, to say the very least. Produced by Butch Vig, (Garbage, Sonic Youth, Nirvana, and Foo Fighters) Siamese Dream is an album driven by guitars and is a classic alternative juggernaut from the nineties.
This edition of Siamese Dream has been digitally re-mastered and includes an expanded three discs (two CDs + DVD) edition of the 1993 classic. The box set features the re-mastered version of the original album plus a bonus CD consisting of 17 previously unreleased or alternate versions of Siamese Dream-era songs, a DVD containing a previously unreleased 1993 live show from The Metro, 13 postcards featuring original album collages and a 24 page booklet that includes lyrics, photos, liner notes and track-by-track annotations by frontman, Billy Corgan.
Siamese Dream is arguably the best Smashing Pumpkins album and is certainly vintage Pumpkins, to say the very least. Produced by Butch Vig, (Garbage, Sonic Youth, Nirvana, and Foo Fighters) Siamese Dream is an album driven by guitars and is a classic alternative juggernaut from the nineties.
This edition of Siamese Dream has been digitally re-mastered and includes an expanded three discs (two CDs + DVD) edition of the 1993 classic. The box set features the re-mastered version of the original album plus a bonus CD consisting of 17 previously unreleased or alternate versions of Siamese Dream-era songs, a DVD containing a previously unreleased 1993 live show from The Metro, 13 postcards featuring original album collages and a 24 page booklet that includes lyrics, photos, liner notes and track-by-track annotations by frontman, Billy Corgan.
Danny Clinch released a book in 1998 called Discovery Inn that collected many of his iconic images. These photos are now being made available on an interactive app for the iPad available for download on Apple's iTunes store for $2.99.
The app includes photos of Radiohead, Johnny Cash, Phish, The Beastie Boys, and Eddie Vedder. In addition, the app also includes exclusive unreleased music from Blind Melon and a virtual tour of Danny Clinch's camera collection.
Danny Clinch released a book in 1998 called Discovery Inn that collected many of his iconic images. These photos are now being made available on an interactive app for the iPad available for download on Apple's iTunes store for $2.99.
The app includes photos of Radiohead, Johnny Cash, Phish, The Beastie Boys, and Eddie Vedder. In addition, the app also includes exclusive unreleased music from Blind Melon and a virtual tour of Danny Clinch's camera collection.
Thick as a Brick is a concept album, and the fifth studio album, by the Englishprogressive rock band Jethro Tull released in 1972. Its lyrics are based on a poem written by a fictitious boy, Gerald Bostock, said to have been adapted to music by Jethro Tull—although the band's Ian Anderson in fact wrote the lyrics himself. The album features only one song, lasting nearly 45 minutes. To accommodate the album on LP vinyl and cassette, the seamless track was split on both sides of the record.
The epic is notable for numerous time signature and tempo changes (which is not uncommon in the then-emerging progressive rocksubgenre of rock), as well as a large number of themes throughout the piece, resembling a typical classical symphony in this regard, rather than a typical rock song. Released in 1972, Thick as a Brick was Jethro Tull's first deep progressive rock offering, four years after the release of their first album. Not only was the musical structure complex, but many instruments uncommon in rock music were added. Whereas in prior numbers the band were content with guitars, drums, piano, Hammond organ, and Ian Anderson's signature flute, Thick as a Brick included harpsichord, xylophone, timpani, violin, lute, trumpet, saxophone, and a string section.
Band leader Ian Anderson was surprised by the critical reaction to the previous album, Aqualung, as a "concept album", a label he has firmly rejected to this day. In an interview on In the Studio with Redbeard (which spotlighted Thick as a Brick), Anderson's response to the critics was: "If the critics want a concept album we'll give the mother of all concept albums and we'll make it so bombastic and so over the top."Ian Anderson has been quoted as stating that Thick as a Brick was written "because everyone was saying we were a progressive rock band, so we decided to live up to the reputation and write a progressive album, but done as a parody of the genre." With Thick as a Brick, the band created an album deliberately integrated around one concept: a poem by an intelligent English boy (named Gerald) about the trials of growing up. Beyond this, the album was a send-up of all pretentious "concept albums". (The simile "Thick as a brick", in English, is an expression signifying someone who is "stupid; slow to learn or understand".)
Anderson also stated in that interview that "the album was a spoof to the albums of Yes and Emerson, Lake & Palmer much like what the movie Airplane! had been to Airport". The formula was successful, and the album reached number one on the charts in the United States.
Beginning in March 1972, and continuing for about a year, the band performed an upwards of 70-minute-long version of the album. The performance grew in length from 60 minutes in March to about 70 minutes later. Side one of the official album was expanded in concert to about 45 minutes in length with the inclusion of flute, bass and organ, and other instrumental interludes, as well as the instrumentals "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and "Bouree". At the conclusion of side one a 5-minute "news and weather" comedy routine gave the band (and the audience) a break from the intense music. At concerts in Germany and Italy, the news and weather section was done in those native languages. After the "news and weather" side two of the album was played. It began as the official album did but then became much more improvisatory and included a long drum solo (sometimes almost 10 minutes long). The side two section lasted about 25 minutes and concluded, as did the official album, with the coda. The remainder of the 1972 live show consisted of (with only minor variances throughout the year) "Cross-Eyed Mary", "A New Day Yesterday", "Aqualung", "Wind-Up", "Martin's Guitar Solo", "Locomotive Breath", and "Wind-Up (Reprise)".
There are no known official video or film recordings of the tour and Ian Anderson denies the existence of any soundboard recordings of any of those performances. There are, however, at least 30 recordings from the audience that circulate among collectors, so this has been well documented.
Later live performances feature a shortened version of the first side, such as the 12 minutes and 30 seconds version on the live albumBursting Out.
In 2011 it was announced that Jethro Tull would be performing the entire album live on tour for the first time since 1972.
The original LP cover was a spoof of a twelve-by-sixteen inch (305 by 406 mm) multipage local newspaper, entitled The St. Cleve Chronicle and Linwell Advertiser, with articles, competitions, adverts, etc., lampooning the parochial and amateurish local journalism that still exists in many places today, as well as certain classical album covers. Jethro Tull's official website states about the mock-newspaper, "There are a lot of inside puns, cleverly hidden continuing jokes (such as the experimental non-rabbit), a surprisingly frank review of the album itself, and even a little naughty connect-the-dots children's activity." The "newspaper", dated 7 January 1972, also includes the entire lyrics to the poem "Thick as a Brick" (and, thus, to the album of the same name -- printed on page 7) as written by a fictional 8-year-old literary prodigy, Gerald "Little Milton" Bostock, whose disqualification from a poetry contest is the focus of the front page story. This article claims that although Bostock initially won the contest with "Thick as a Brick", the judges' decision was repealed after a multitude of protests and threats concerning the offensive nature of the poem, furthered by allegations of the boy's psychological instability. Subtly scattered throughout the articles are references to the lyrics, to Bostock and Jethro Tull, and to other peculiar parts of the newspaper itself. The spoof newspaper had to be heavily abridged for conventional CD covers, but the 25th Anniversary Special Edition CD includes a partial facsimile; some content is missing, such as a part of the "front page;" however, the picture was restored to its full size including the entire image of "Gerald's chum", 14-year-old Julia Fealey, who in the article below the main one blames her recent pregnancy on Bostock.
Thick as a Brick is a concept album, and the fifth studio album, by the Englishprogressive rock band Jethro Tull released in 1972. Its lyrics are based on a poem written by a fictitious boy, Gerald Bostock, said to have been adapted to music by Jethro Tull—although the band's Ian Anderson in fact wrote the lyrics himself. The album features only one song, lasting nearly 45 minutes. To accommodate the album on LP vinyl and cassette, the seamless track was split on both sides of the record.
The epic is notable for numerous time signature and tempo changes (which is not uncommon in the then-emerging progressive rocksubgenre of rock), as well as a large number of themes throughout the piece, resembling a typical classical symphony in this regard, rather than a typical rock song. Released in 1972, Thick as a Brick was Jethro Tull's first deep progressive rock offering, four years after the release of their first album. Not only was the musical structure complex, but many instruments uncommon in rock music were added. Whereas in prior numbers the band were content with guitars, drums, piano, Hammond organ, and Ian Anderson's signature flute, Thick as a Brick included harpsichord, xylophone, timpani, violin, lute, trumpet, saxophone, and a string section.
Band leader Ian Anderson was surprised by the critical reaction to the previous album, Aqualung, as a "concept album", a label he has firmly rejected to this day. In an interview on In the Studio with Redbeard (which spotlighted Thick as a Brick), Anderson's response to the critics was: "If the critics want a concept album we'll give the mother of all concept albums and we'll make it so bombastic and so over the top."Ian Anderson has been quoted as stating that Thick as a Brick was written "because everyone was saying we were a progressive rock band, so we decided to live up to the reputation and write a progressive album, but done as a parody of the genre." With Thick as a Brick, the band created an album deliberately integrated around one concept: a poem by an intelligent English boy (named Gerald) about the trials of growing up. Beyond this, the album was a send-up of all pretentious "concept albums". (The simile "Thick as a brick", in English, is an expression signifying someone who is "stupid; slow to learn or understand".)
Anderson also stated in that interview that "the album was a spoof to the albums of Yes and Emerson, Lake & Palmer much like what the movie Airplane! had been to Airport". The formula was successful, and the album reached number one on the charts in the United States.
Beginning in March 1972, and continuing for about a year, the band performed an upwards of 70-minute-long version of the album. The performance grew in length from 60 minutes in March to about 70 minutes later. Side one of the official album was expanded in concert to about 45 minutes in length with the inclusion of flute, bass and organ, and other instrumental interludes, as well as the instrumentals "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and "Bouree". At the conclusion of side one a 5-minute "news and weather" comedy routine gave the band (and the audience) a break from the intense music. At concerts in Germany and Italy, the news and weather section was done in those native languages. After the "news and weather" side two of the album was played. It began as the official album did but then became much more improvisatory and included a long drum solo (sometimes almost 10 minutes long). The side two section lasted about 25 minutes and concluded, as did the official album, with the coda. The remainder of the 1972 live show consisted of (with only minor variances throughout the year) "Cross-Eyed Mary", "A New Day Yesterday", "Aqualung", "Wind-Up", "Martin's Guitar Solo", "Locomotive Breath", and "Wind-Up (Reprise)".
There are no known official video or film recordings of the tour and Ian Anderson denies the existence of any soundboard recordings of any of those performances. There are, however, at least 30 recordings from the audience that circulate among collectors, so this has been well documented.
Later live performances feature a shortened version of the first side, such as the 12 minutes and 30 seconds version on the live albumBursting Out.
In 2011 it was announced that Jethro Tull would be performing the entire album live on tour for the first time since 1972.
The original LP cover was a spoof of a twelve-by-sixteen inch (305 by 406 mm) multipage local newspaper, entitled The St. Cleve Chronicle and Linwell Advertiser, with articles, competitions, adverts, etc., lampooning the parochial and amateurish local journalism that still exists in many places today, as well as certain classical album covers. Jethro Tull's official website states about the mock-newspaper, "There are a lot of inside puns, cleverly hidden continuing jokes (such as the experimental non-rabbit), a surprisingly frank review of the album itself, and even a little naughty connect-the-dots children's activity." The "newspaper", dated 7 January 1972, also includes the entire lyrics to the poem "Thick as a Brick" (and, thus, to the album of the same name -- printed on page 7) as written by a fictional 8-year-old literary prodigy, Gerald "Little Milton" Bostock, whose disqualification from a poetry contest is the focus of the front page story. This article claims that although Bostock initially won the contest with "Thick as a Brick", the judges' decision was repealed after a multitude of protests and threats concerning the offensive nature of the poem, furthered by allegations of the boy's psychological instability. Subtly scattered throughout the articles are references to the lyrics, to Bostock and Jethro Tull, and to other peculiar parts of the newspaper itself. The spoof newspaper had to be heavily abridged for conventional CD covers, but the 25th Anniversary Special Edition CD includes a partial facsimile; some content is missing, such as a part of the "front page;" however, the picture was restored to its full size including the entire image of "Gerald's chum", 14-year-old Julia Fealey, who in the article below the main one blames her recent pregnancy on Bostock.
Many of you may already know about Big Star. Their huge potential,misfortune,and irony that their first record named #1 Record never got the radio play or attention it well deserved. I won't do them justice in this entry,but my effort is to get you to dig in and enjoy this music you may have missed and learn something about their missed brass ring.
You'll read all the issues that unfortunately roadblocked them into only making three albums, but there has been a cult following ever since the 1970s on these guys. Yeah, they formed back in 1971 in Memphis and were essentially done by 1974 and all 3 albums are in Rolling Stone's top 500 albums of all-time.
"Big Star aren't rock's greatest cult band;they were arguably rock's first cult band."-Pitchfork
This link goes back to the SXSW show that Big Star had planned to kick start them again in 2010 and tragically Alex Chilton died. You'll see how R.E.M,The Replacements,Evan Dando and numerous others were influenced by Big Star Nothing Can Hurt Me- Big Star documentary trailer
Many of you may already know about Big Star. Their huge potential,misfortune,and irony that their first record named #1 Record never got the radio play or attention it well deserved. I won't do them justice in this entry,but my effort is to get you to dig in and enjoy this music you may have missed and learn something about their missed brass ring.
You'll read all the issues that unfortunately roadblocked them into only making three albums, but there has been a cult following ever since the 1970s on these guys. Yeah, they formed back in 1971 in Memphis and were essentially done by 1974 and all 3 albums are in Rolling Stone's top 500 albums of all-time.
"Big Star aren't rock's greatest cult band;they were arguably rock's first cult band."-Pitchfork
This link goes back to the SXSW show that Big Star had planned to kick start them again in 2010 and tragically Alex Chilton died. You'll see how R.E.M,The Replacements,Evan Dando and numerous others were influenced by Big Star Nothing Can Hurt Me- Big Star documentary trailer
I don't necessarily suggest you camp out,but I would suggest you get an early start Friday morning to your local record store in order to find these special issues for Black Friday Record Store Day. Here is a list of the special releases.
You've seen countless ads on TV about Black Friday shopping at big chain stores,but I expect your record store experience doesn't involve trampling or eye gouging. No, I bet you'd have a great time looking for cds or vinyl that you've had on yours or someone specials Christmas list...think ahead...if you know you're on the naughty list go ahead and pick up what you think Santa might not leave next to the lump of coal.
At this moment I'm digging Spoon"My Mathematical Mind"as I write this blog...music is a fulfilling part of my everyday experience. As a side note, we need to be thankful for the Arts...music is as important to our ongoing culture as anything else.
