Category Archives: news

Obit: Prince Rogers Nelson (1958-2016)

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Details are still spilling in and vague, but the iconic artist known as Prince has passed away at age 57.

To say this is shocking does not do the story justice, but Prince belongs up there with Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Wonder, The Beatles, and the Stones in my view as a brilliant artist who had vision and who dared us to join him on his musical/artistic/spiritual journey.

As in, Prince could probably have just redone his brilliant Purple Rain soundtrack/album over and over in variations of funky rock’n’soul over the past 30 years, but he didn’t. Rather Prince challenged and reinvented himself over and over and though the results might not have been as tuneful or accessible as Purple Rain, the results were those of an artist and performer who would not be compromised, and that is the essence of art in my view.

Since I don’t know much more at this point, not sure what else can be said? I was looking for a YouTube of Little Red Corvette, my favorite song by the artist which features great and clever lyrics, a fantastic melody, and a great production, but I could not find one.

So, off to the ether with an equally wonderful tune, Purple Rain.

Cannot believe you are gone Prince. As usual, earth will miss the void you left.

 

Lucinda Williams, Dust

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I knew Lucinda Williams had a new album coming out, but I guess it’s already in stores (as if there were stores).

Bob Lefsetz wrote a glowing piece about the song Dust, which he found on Spotify in a recommended playlist. It’s a typical Williams rant of woe (inspirational lyric “Even your thoughts are dust”), and she does these darkly and with a sonic charge on all her albums since Essence, maybe, and while it’s hard for me to get fired up by them any more (even though I’m sure this is about the death of her father, a great poet, who died last year), Lefsetz is right that the two guitar parts are gorgeous and compelling, and the song is incantatory.

Plus, the drumming is fantastic and so important.

The guitarists are the great Bill Frissell and a guy named Eric Leisz, who has played in Clapton’s band. Here’s the song:

Nice, right?

Lefsetz’s glowing piece doesn’t stay glowing, because he discovered that if he wanted to hear the rest of the album he would have to buy a CD, and who does that (apart from Moyer)?

And he’s right. No album on Spotify. I subscribe to Google Music, and the album isn’t there either. This seems so backward!

But I wonder if Lefsetz gets the position of artists like Williams (and Iris Dement, too, who has a new album out only available as CD or downloaded files–for the same price). They have toured long and hard and in support of deep and solid bodies of work. Their audience is old, like me, and the chance of them having a big airplay hit that racks up Spotify plays are pretty small.

The business is in transition, and it kind of makes sense to me for artists like this to hold onto the old model, not stream right away, and see if they can make a go getting the physical media fetishists to pay real cash for their CDs.

They’ll have plenty of time to collect the tiny residuals checks from the streaming services later.

 

Breaking: Bernie Williams and Peter Gammons on Guitar

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You can just get a sliver of Bernie, at Theo Epstein’s Hot Stove Cool Music charity event in Boston yesterday. Reports were they played a Kiss song, but I don’t think this is it. Other reports were that Kevin Youkilis play a mean tambourine.

David Bowie has died. Blackstar.

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Blackstar, David Bowie’s latest album, came out last week. I’d read the warm, enthusiastic reviews but only sampled small pieces before word came this morning that he’d passed on. I was waiting until I found the whole album, Google Music didn’t have it, but it turns out YouTube did. We’ve written about many Bowie songs and projects here over the years. This cut is a worthy piece of ambitious and pleasurable music suffused with the mythmaking heart found in everything David Bowie created. A look backward into a dark future without him (but with his art) that starts today.

LINK: Besides Steve Moyer, Who Is Buying CDs?

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These are Australians, but they count. Read it here.

Two of the Australians have a band called the Arcadian, which is a bad name for Googling (there are lots of them), but when I finally found them they’re kind of a stock hardcore band. But they get excited about a record by a band called Frenzel Rhomb, an Australian punky band from the 90s that does-but-doesn’t-overdo the pop punk cuteness on this tune from 1996.

Here’s another one. Good rhythm section.