A flip through our bins will bring the outside sounds in.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
RECORD STORE DAY 2010 RELEASES
I found this list on the Record Store Day website. Looks like a lot of goodies this year in many genres. A little something for everyone such as John Lennon, Elvis Presley, Beastie Boys, Wilco, Weezer, Sharon Jones And the Dap Kings, and more!
You've heard of swap meets. As a twist on that notion, Record Racks and the aptly-named Funky 16 Corners will be doing a blog post swap in the very near future. If you follow that blog (which you should, as there are always some great nuggets if you're into soul/funk 45s), you know that we're in for a real treat.
Found this Billboard article interesting. Universal Music Group will be testing a lower price scheme for physical CDs to try to help sales and prolong the life of the physical format.
From the article:
"Beginning in the second quarter and continuing through most of the year, the company's Velocity program will test lower CD prices. Single CDs will have the suggested list prices of $10, $9, $8, $7 and $6."
Will it help? Will any of the other Bigs follow the same path?
The annual Record Store Day to celebrate indie record shops is coming this April 17. The only special release I've heard of so far is a Paolo Nutini Live EP (4 songs), although there is sure to be more to come.
Billed as "the first concert movie of the rock era," many PBS stations will be airing this show which hasn't been seen in decades this weekend! It features huge names from the '60s (it was filmed in 1964) such as The Beach Boys, Chuck Berry, Jan and Dean, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, James Brown, The Rolling Stones, and Marvin Gaye just to name a few.
Check your local listings for it to air this weekend, most likely on Saturday in most markets.
If you do happen to miss the PBS airing, you'll be able to purchase it at your local music stores or favorite online outlets on March 23.
The Numero brand has been expanding beyond just music in their quest to become the new Folkways, as Numero's Ken Shipley has compared Numero to in the past. Aside from the collectible trading cards of the music acts they've released, they've started to branch out in other directions of the creative world. Late last year, they released “Light: On The South Side,” a book following Chicago nightlife throughout several clubs (a book that was rivaled only by the music that accompanied it) and now they've gone in a completely different direction: film.
In true Numero fashion, they haven't unearthed some lost project of a big name movie director like Roman Polanski. Instead, they've compiled 45 (a curious/coincidental number?) of pieces by Al Jarnow. With their previous releases, the music is so localized that unless you grew up in Columbus, Ohio, or had done a case study on regional arts, you had probably never heard the material. However, some of these Jarnow films most likely are part of the fabric of your childhood if you grew up watching Sesame Street or 3-2-1 Contact in the '70s and '80s, even if you don't remember them by his name prior to watching this collection.
Recently, I got a chance to rap with Michael Slaboch from Numero about this project, which he spent countless hours researching and compiling. What I came away with from our conversation was how inspired and in awe of Jarnow's work he was the deeper he got into it. That's quite a compliment considering Mr. Slaboch went to film school.
It all started when Al Jarnow's son, Jesse, sent Slaboch a YouTube clip of his father's Cosmic Clock. Intrigued, Slaboch asked to see more. After discussing with the rest of the Numero collective, they added it to their board of potential projects to pursue. He knew this project was going to be incomplete without the Sesame Street material. After numerous cold calls, he finally linked up with someone from the legal department of the Children's Television Workshop who was very accommodating. Once that connection was made, Celestial Navigations started to fully take shape.
Many of the films have a heavy science base where Jarnow deconstructs the world, according to Slaboch. It's quite amazing to watch many of these films that employ techniques like stop motion as they unfold. Take Cubits, for instance. A piece like that took thousands of photos and hundreds of individually hand-drawn index cards, which doesn't even take into account the ordering and planning after the shoot. It's truly mindboggling to think about.
Aside from the work put in by the Numero team, they got an assist from Alexander Maxwell, who happened to work at one of the leading color correction companies in the world. Maxwell, a Numero subscriber, lent his expertise in return for being a part of what he called “The Numero Experience.” One of his main duties was to transfer 16mm film prints, an arduous task. The results speak for themselves as this DVD is an artifact to be treasured with Jarnow's independent filmmaking.
For a humble man who never wanted to be a star, the spotlight is certainly on Jarnow now. Numero is even taking the film on tour (their second tour in as many years). Catch them in your city if you can. If you aren't fortunate enough to see it on the big screen, it's just as enjoyable watching over and over in the comfort of your own home.
Jarnow has since turned to computer art and software design over the last couple of decades. Some of his early work such as Computer Test may take you back to early LOGO computer programming on the Apple IIe. His work has been showcased in Exploratorium in San Francisco and The National Gallery Of Art. Artists such as Van Gogh and Picasso get many of the accolades by painting memorable and pretty pictures, but artists like Escher and Jarnow can really grab your attention with not only their visual astuteness but their keen eye to draw you into their world. The results are truly inspiring.
Record Racks finally got on board with Facebook. Come check us out, and feel free to share with your friends and colleagues. You can view our Page by clicking the link in this post or in the sidebar under the Subscribe section.
Sunday marks one of the biggest television days of the year. In honor of the big game, here are a few selections of songs from or about the three cities involved: New Orleans and Indianapolis, the two participants, and Miami, the host city.
While New Orleans may be underdogs per the oddsmakers, their city's musical history needs no introduction and has a considerably strong edge over Indianapolis. From zydeco, funk, early rock n roll, they have the bases covered.
Indianapolis, though, is no slouch when it comes to musical history. It has produced jazz legends such as Freddie Hubbard and Wes Montgomery as well as pop/R&B icon Babyface who has had considerable success as a writer, producer, and performer.
Starting with the away team's city, Huey Piano Smith and crew present some classic New Orleans music. While not the song they're primarily associated with (that would be “Rockin Pneumonia And The Boogie Woogie Flu”), “High Blood Pressure” comes from the group's highest charting single that is led primarily by a busy horn section and a simple chord change on piano.
If this Super Bowl is the shootout that many analysts are predicting, high blood pressure may be symptomatic for the viewing audience.
In the mid-60s, high school bands cutting records was not uncommon. In Indianapolis, friends who attended Crispus Attucks and Shortridge High Schools, cut their only work (under this moniker, at least) for Lamp Records. They were striving for a dance-based tune, which funny enough has a kind of New Orleans-ish sound a la The Meters.
Catch the drum break toward the end that's by... a teenager. Mean stuff! Soon, I'm supposed to be meeting with Rodney Stepp, who was the leader of the band, to get more inside info about this track and numerous others he worked on throughout his career for a release that's still in the works.
Will Smith: Miami (Miami Sound Machine Remix) From Miami (CD Single) (Columbia, 1999)
The last of the bunch is an ode to the host city. Will Smith, unless you've been living under a rock, needs no introduction. This isn't the version you'll be likely to hear on the TV going into commercial break, although you may remember a clip of this version from the official music video. While it lacks the familiar Whispers sample, it more than makes up for it with energy from the Emilio Estefan-overseen remix.
The BPMs are cranked compared to the original, and given the content of the song I have always found the music in this version to be more congruent to the subject matter than the original offers, especially with the Latin music history that Miami is known for.
Over the river and through the woods.. or over the airwaves and through your speakers/headphones, a colleague of mine, DJ Still Life, hosts a radio show on East Village Radio that plays a variety of current hits and remixes as well as old school, much of which focuses on global bass and electronic music. He has guests stop by occasionally. Last week Lamin from Dutty Artz stopped by for a few.
Check him out at East Village Radio on Thursday nights from 10 PM to 12 AM EST. If you can't schedule that into your hectic life, you can listen to archived shows. It's like DVR except they do all the recording for you, and you don't have to worry about the hard drive filling up!
There have been 2 interesting stories in the news the past couple of weeks regarding live music and how you can consume it:
1. Billboard Live: Billboard, the industry leading magazine/company, will feature various concerts with multiple camera angles and in HD quality on their Live website.
2. Live Nation and Apple have teamed up to bring live content from Live Nation's many venues directly to Apple's iTunes. Live Nation has wired nearly 80 of its venues to record concerts, both video and audio. These shows will then be offered exclusively to iTunes for purchase. Some are already available for purchase including from artists such as Duffy and Ziggy Marley. More shows are soon to come.
Dusty Groove has a t-shirt design contest running through the end of October. If you have a knack for design and want or just want to tap into your inner Tim Gunn, you can win some pretty nice prizes.
Grand Prize: A $250 Dusty Groove gift certificate, and 5 T-Shirts with your winning design! 2nd Prize: A $100 Dusty Groove gift certificate, and a T-Shirt with the winning design. 3rd Prize: A $50 Dusty Groove gift certificate, and a T-Shirt with the winning design. Runners up: Five runners up get a $25 Dusty Groove gift certificate, and a T-Shirt with the winning design.
