Interested in attending the upcoming MTV Video Music Awards ceremony on September 12? Well, chances are you might be able to do it for free. All you have to do is start following MTV on Foursquare and check in to music venues between August 30 and September 5. The one who gets the best score (IE, the one who gets to check in to more venues) is the one attending the event.
Location-based networking is as hot as it has ever been. Facebook has recently premiered its “Facebook Places” service, and many were surprised to see it did Foursquare no harm – it actually gave the pioneer location service a big boost.
MTV has been actively looking for ways to stay fresh in the face of the technology people are using today. Not so long ago Chicago resident Gabi Gregg was appointed as the network’s official Twitter DJ. The Foursquare alliance is nothing but a logical step. Will it be a fruitful one? We’ll see.
I am sure very few among us can claim to have a favorite lyrics site. I mean, there are a zillion of them out there. Personally, I have always been keen on the AZ Lyrics website because it is lightweight, the lyrics are arranged album by album, and (yes, I know I am fastidious) the punctuation and the use of capitals is fully accounted for. As a non-native speaker of English, I always print the lyrics to all the albums that I buy that don’t include them. A site like AZ Lyrics lets me get them quickly, and create a Word document with them painlessly.
Still, I am always looking for alternatives. And I must say that the Double Lyrics website has got a lot going for it. For starters, whenever you carry out a search you get results that are sorted by relevancy. You don’t get a jumble of links that might be what you needed or something completely unrelated. The most relevant lyrics are ranked by the site’s engine and featured on top, while the ones that will probably have nothing to do with your query are relegated to the bottom of the list.
Also, users can both review and rate lyrics. That is nothing new (many sites let users “comment” on lyrics, and fans take advantage of that opportunity to review them), but its usefulness is not questioned by anybody – you will have a bigger chance of finding what you are after in that way. And once you have found it, a well-written review can always let you figure out what a cryptic song is all about. For example, how many are really aware of all the possible interpretation of Cat Steven’s “Moonshadow “? How many are aware of the cancer interpretation, the Vietnam chopper interpretation…? Only fans are. And if given the chance to review a song and illuminate everybody else, they are likely to do it. Continue reading →
Jimmy Page Played On The Who’s First Single “I Can’t Explain/Bald Headed Woman”. Producer Shel Talmy Used Him Extensively In Those Days.
Yes, it is true. He played on their debut single, “I Can’t Explain/Bald Headed Woman”. The single was produced by Shel Talmy. He was famous for barring bands from playing on their own records, and for using session players to get the job done instead. The Kinks (the first British hit band he produced) had to put up with that for quite some time.
When The Who went into the studio to record their first single, they found themselves outnumbered by session men. These included a trio of singers named The Ivy League, and a young (but already legendary) Jimmy Page. Talmy used him in all his sessions whenever possible.
Page was supposed to play the lead both on “I Can’t Explain” and “Bald Headed Woman”. However, in order to play the “I Can’t Explain” riff a twelve-string Rickenbacker was needed. Page didn’t have one. Townshend did. And he would have lost an arm before lending it to Page. So The Who’s frontman was the one who played the lead, while Page strummed along. Continue reading →
“Hits” Was Issued In 1996. It Anthologized The Songs That Could Be Deemed As “Classic” Joni Mitchell. A Companion Album Named “Misses” Captured Her Most Experimental Side.
The success of the “Turbulent Indigo” album (1994) led Joni Mitchell to a true commercial resurgence. Suddenly, a whole new generation was interested in the music the Canadian performer had created over the three previous decades. Reprise (Joni’s label at the time) moved fast to meet that demand, and Mitchell agreed to the release of a “Best Of” package provided that she could also release a compilation of quasi-hits. That was how the “Hits” and “Misses” albums came to be.
Joni Mitchell reminds me of Bob Dylan in the sense that even in their heydays both performers landed a comparatively small number of bonafide hits. In the case of Joni Mitchell, a Top 7 hit was as hard as she would hit the charts. The song was “Help Me”, and it is obviously included here along with her other three Top 30 hits: “Big Yellow Taxi” , “Free Man In Paris” and the infectious “You Turn Me On (I’m A Radio)”, one of her most joyous compositions.
Of course, quintessential tracks like “The Circle Game” and “Both Sides Now” are featured, and they sound as sharp as ever.
“Blue“, Joni’s breakthrough record (and my favorite album of hers) is represented by “California”, “Carey” and “River”. I must say that while both “California” and “Carey” (an alias for James Taylor, her flame at the time) are very good songs, they are not the songs that give “Blue” its edge. The songs like “River” do it; songs which are sparser instrumentally and that provide some of the most intimate moments not only of Joni’s career but also of the whole decade. Continue reading →
Los muchachos de RostbiF se presentan en el Pepsi Bandplugged de este año, si pueden pasen y dejen su voto por ellos en la página del certamen. ¡Vamos que se vota en menos de un minuto!
Acrimony arose when Britney Spears became the most popular Twitter user ever, displacing Ashton Kutcher in the process. Like him or loathe him, Kutcher has always offered fans a personalized experience, answering their queries himself and interacting with them on a tangible way. On the contrary, Britney’s Twitter account has always been the kind that is kept by a marketing team from day one.
Well, Britney’s reign as the Queen of Twitter is over. She has just been toppled by Lady Gaga. How much of an improvement is that? Not that much, to be frank. But at least she is more engaging than Britney.
And we shouldn’t really complain – by the looks of it, Lady Gaga will be dethroned before too long.
Justin Bieber is racing his way to the top.
Gulp.
As the Goo Goo Dolls sang, “I wanna bulletproof myself”.
The music industry can dent anybody’s enthusiasm and willingness to make art. But a true artist always keeps at it, not only because it is the only valid form of expression he knows, but because he realizes there comes a point his public needs him to articulate how they feel. It becomes something wholly reciprocal; they need each other, they feed off each other and they motivate each other to do their best.
That is the true moral that arises from Joni Mitchell’s career – a career that has seen wild commercial up and downs, but that has had Joni true to herself and to every single one of us.
Joni Mitchell was born Roberta Joan in Fort MacLeod (Canada). The year was 1943. She showed a precocious interest in music, studying first the piano and then the guitar. Yet, at age nine she was stricken with polio. That made playing the guitar difficult from that point onwards, and that was one of the reasons Joni developed the unique tunings she would be renowned for in her career.
She has defined herself as a “rebellious teenager”, and upon growing up she intended to attend art school in Calgary. She attended classes only for one year there before moving to Toronto, where she met a cabaret jazz singer named Chuck Mitchell that would become her husband in 1966. Together, they headed for the US to seek their fortunes as musicians. The marriage fell apart in 1967, and Joni went to New York City to launch her solo career in earnest.
Before ever releasing her debut album, other artists began recording her songs – Tom Rush sang the very first song she ever wrote, “Urge For Going”, and Judy Collins made the poignant “Both Sides Now” popular long before Joni did.
Joni’s big break came when she was discovered by David Crosby, who convinced his record company (Reprise Records) to sign her up. They did, and Joni’s first album (known as either “Joni Mitchell” or “Song For A Seagull”) was recorded and issued. Public interest began picking up, and a heavy schedule in support of both her debut and the follow-up record (“Clouds”, 1969) made the press take notice as well.
“Ladies Of The Canyon” was issued in 1970. It became her first gold record on the strength of “Big Yellow Taxi” (a top 30 hit) and her own version of “The Circle Game” (the song had been recorded long before by both by Tom Rush and Buffy Sainte-Marie). Continue reading →
This post finishes the coverage of social media songs that was started yesterday. Just turn up the volume and enjoy. And share it with your friends, dammit – we are talking about social media! ; )
6– Badges Like Us (The Foursquare Rap)
A service that many of you have just become acquainted with by the introduction of Facebook Places, Foursquare is the king of location-based networks. As such, it has got its own rap.
7– Everybody Tweet
What can be said about Twitter? To many, it was destined to steal Facebook’s thunder. Well, it didn’t. But it did inspire this nice ditty.
Like it or loathe it, social networking has changed the very paradigm in which we become acquainted with others and interact with them. Facebook is the undisputed flagship of the whole social phenomenon – it has over 500 million users and a movie (directed by no other than Steven Soddeberg) that is premiering in a mater of two months.
Time, then, for a little revision of how it all got started and evolved.This is a collection of songs, spoofs and parodies of the world of social networking. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter… everything is mentioned at some point or the other.
I hope you like this selection, and I also hope that you check back tomorrow for part 2 of this feature.
1– My Mom’s On Facebook
This is my personal favorite. This video was actually featured in MusicKO way back in March. It is a hilarious hair metal song by comedy group Back Of The Class that deals with the nightmare of having your mom befriending you on Facebook.
Music180 is a development platform for artists. What the site does is to connect new musicians with big names in the industry and let them collaborate to the full. For example, young bands can get in touch with renowned producers and cover designers, and strike up a relationship that might end up in them getting their album produced by people who have worked with international superstars.
The site has a database of music pros that have worked with artists of the caliber of Aerosmith, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry, and these indie artists who sign up can have their music brought to their attention. It is all taken from there, and in addition to producers Music180 makes it possible for performers to get in touch with the kind of people who can dream up the right marketing campaign for any musical genre. Continue reading →
