Not only is this weekend the time for the muddy, Phishy, mushroom-peanut-butter-cup-free spectacle that is Bonnaroo, the UK is currently in the throes of the spiky-edged Download Festival, which has a lineup today that in these eyes trumps today’s offerings in Tennessee. This is mainly because the reunited Faith No More’s headlining set at Download (which takes place in Leicestershire’s Donington Park) begins at 9 p.m. local time (4 p.m. ET), and they still haven’t scheduled any dates here yet. (Sadface.) Sure, I would have had to sit through Limp Bizkit’s apparently LOL-tastic set to get to that point of sweet release, but we all have to make sacrifices, no? I mean, just check out this clip of “I Started A Joke” from Wednesday’s show at the Brixton Academy: MORE »
POSTS FROM "somethin 4 the weekend" CATEGORY
reunions
Festivals: To Go Or Not To Go?
somethin 4 the weekend
Which Classic Albums Most Deserve To Be Re-Imagined In A Live Setting?
Tomorrow I’ll be tripping down to Philadelphia to attend The Roots Picnic, an all-day affair masterminded by Jimmy Fallon’s sidemen (haha, jk guys) and featuring two sets by the band; TV On The Radio, Santigold, and Antibalas are also on the bill. But perhaps the most intriguing part of the day’s festivities will be the start-to-finish performance of Public Enemy’s It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back–yes, they’ve done it before, but this time, the musical duties will be handled by the Roots and Antibalas. This and the impending relaunch of Unplugged have made me wonder: What albums most deserve a live re-imagining, whether it’s the transformation of samples into band arrangements or the classic Unplugged treatment? I’ve actually been mulling over this question all day, and can’t think of anything off the top of my head–unless Freestyle’s Greatest Beats, Volume One counts. (It should!) After the jump, a few musical experts offer their suggestions. Please feel free to expand further, and if you’re going to the picnic, come say hello! MORE »
somethin 4 the weekend
What Is Your Favorite Song About A Food Or A Beverage?
The question’s pretty simple, although to make things a little bit tougher, let’s say that the songs in question have to be about food, and not sexual metaphors for food. To get the inspirational juices (haha, get it?) flowing, here is “Eat It,” which is, of course, merely one of “Weird Al” Yankovic’s many songs devoted to gastronomy. After the jump, I survey many people for their thoughts, and post my favorite food-related disco jam: MORE »
somethin 4 the weekend
Six Videos That Can Now Be Looked At As Missed Opportunities For Product Placement
I still love this morning’s story about the product-placement deal that was struck between Autograph and Paper-Mate 25 years ago, mainly because it took so long for the obvious-in-hindsight synergy to be noticed by this observer. “With the name Autograph, it’s logical for us to be advertising a pen,” lead singer Steve Plunkett told the Los Angeles Times when the deal was dissected. “It would only be weird and out of place if we were advertising something like a vacuum cleaner or a roach spray.” But what if other videos of the era did work with less, um, glamorous products? Six vintage clips that we can now look at as perfect except for their insufficient monetization, after the jump. Feel free to add your own suggestions–and hey, given the impending doom that car companies are seeing, perhaps some current musicians might want to think about getting “creative” with their own endorsements? MORE »
somethin 4 the weekend
What Records Help You Chill Out?
Last night, between a very annoying Mets loss and a session of bug-searching, I took some time to listen to a side of the Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour while sitting on (well, leaning up against, really) a bean bag, a cold beer in my hand. And I did nothing else. It was nice! It was also the first time in a long time that I’d just spent listening to a record and staring into space and not doing anything else–not even a crossword puzzle. And today is a beautiful spring day in New York City, one that’s perfect for engaging in similar activities (while being outside). Three records that I need to really pull out and just chill out to sometime soon before I go crazy, after the jump. Feel free to share yours! MORE »
somethin 4 the weekend
The Beatles Remasters: Are They Really That Big A Deal In The Post-CD Era?
Judging by the number of times it showed up in my RSS reader this week, the biggest music news of the past five days was the announcement that the Beatles‘ catalog would be remastered and reissued, with new versions of every one of their studio albums (as well as a couple of other titles) being made available on Sept. 9, the same day that their version of the Rock Band game comes out. (The date’s full of the number nine, don’t you know.) While the popularity of this particular story was no doubt due in part to the Beatles’ status in the classic-rock pantheon, which allows them to be well-known enough to transcend the “got arrested and/or pregnant” standard for making the wires, there was one question that was nagging at me every time I passed through another breathless announcement of the release. And that question is: Who, exactly, is going to buy these CDs? MORE »
the biz
CD Sales: How Low Can They Go?
In the morass of press releases I received yesterday, one stood out for an absurd-on-first-glance claim inside: “PAPA ROACH: RECESSION PROOF!” it said, heralding the fact that the Al Shipley-beloved band had sold 44,456 copies of its new album Metamorphosis in that record’s first week in stories. Which was enough to land it at No. 8. Normally I would have rolled my eyes at such puffery, but a stat that appeared in Hits on Wednesday was enough to make me think that the press release had a point: MORE »
somethin 4 the weekend
“Blender”: A Look Back
Well, the big story this week was probably the shuttering of Blender, the pop magazine who suffered the one-two punch of being a printed entity about music in 2009. Blender’s overarching popism was a big influence on Idolator from the time of its launch in 2006, and even as the death spiral of ad pages resulted in its once-mighty reviews section being whittled down to a handful of 130-word blurbs, I admired its spunk and willingness to reach across the musical comfort zones that divide people more often than not these days, if not always its choices of “hot,” vaguely music-related cover subjects. After the jump, thoughts on the Blender closure from a smattering of people around the Internet, many of whom saw their bylines appear in the magazine’s pages at one time or another. MORE »
somethin 4 the weekend
Is Feb. 27 Too Early To Declare Your Favorite Albums Of The Year So Far?
Apparently not, if this NPR blogger’s list—which is topped by the Antlers’ Hospice—is anything to go by. And another site has even snagged a domain name that assures it’ll at least be atop the Google searches for peoples’ favorite records of the year. And yes, OK, OK, I’m guilty of this premature ranking too, albeit in a way that’s much more shape-shifty than the Ten-Album List On A Blog-Shaped Stone Tablet Post from the public radio behemoth’s site. Anyway, feel free to list your favorites from this still-young year in this site’s comments, or peruse other two-month rundowns I found on the Web after the jump! MORE »
somethin 4 the weekend
Wrapping Up Pet Shop Boys Week With My Five Favorite Tracks
Ever since the leak of “Love etc.”, my affections for the Pet Shop Boys have been revitalized; the performance commemorating their lifetime achievement award (or whatever they called it) at the Brits earlier this week really reminded me of how great they are. In that spirit, here are my five favorite Pet Shop Boys singles. (I have no idea why I’m restricting this to just singles, other than doing so restricts the possibility of me slapping my head later wondering why I forgot [fill in the blank].) MORE »
