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@shirtsoff-newspaper
Wake by Ross John Martin With voice like Maynard from Tool, the warmth of this album will surround you and take you to marvelous places like those of bittersweet romantic movies
Kenny Barker by Kenny Barker Quietness is the strength of this album; each song sounds as a lullaby and will cradle you away to easier universes, forgetting you're still living in this world
Hello there people! This is a call for everybody who wants to be part of this blog and wants to promote emerging bands and spread their music taste and knowledge. As you can see I can't run this blog all alone, life often takes over and this blog pretty much becomes obsolete and boring. This is why I am calling for writers! First of all, it's not imperative to update this blog regularly everyday or with super epic articles, so if life's offering you more important things, of course you put this blog aside.
In order to become part of the staff, all you have to do is to submit a review of your favourite album. If it's a not so famous name is better, of course here we're trying to promote unknown music, but it's not required. And it doesn't have words limit. Of course, again, let's try something not too quick and superficial, but even not too epic and massive. Submit your best article and I'll see if you can help me. No experience needed!!! You can submit at any given time, this call is always open!
Hello again! I'm a bit late? I know, we're already halfway through the month and I didn't publish anything yet. I'm sorry. Sume stuff happened. But now I'm here giving you another couple of things to listen to and enjoy.
1. OFF Original Sound Track by Alias Conrad Coldwood
This is the OST of a very beautiful game called OFF, made by Mortis Ghost in 2009. The sounds and noises are often creepy but always very in line with the atmosphere of the game. (I linked a compilation of the whole tracklist from youtube)
2. Undertale Original Sound Track by Toby Fox
This is the OST of another very beautiful game called Undertale, made by Toby Fox in 2015. The main theme alone can give you all the feelings of the world. Even more if you do know what happens in the game. Diversity is the key word, but if you pay enough attention you'll find out some of the themes get to be reused in different ways.
Enough for this month too. Can't say for sure, but maybe for the new year we'll have something more. For now, see you later!
Hello and welcome back here on the “Shirts Off – Newspaper”. To start perfectly the new month of November I will suggest you a couple of albums that I personally find absolutely awesome.
1. Real Bad [split w/ Monster Bad] by The Real Whitaker Todd
Sounds work really well with lyrics, as they will give you each time a different feeling, like a good album should do. You can also find an interview we had with them last year, where we also promote their previous works. (You can find them here @therealwhitakertodd)
2. From Rotting Fantasyland by Nero's Day At Disneyland
Sounds are a bit extreme sometimes, but that is actually what makes this album so great. To appreciate this piece of works is hard, I found myself listening to this when I still wasn't ready for this kind of music, so had to return to this time later, when I, of course, could appreciate it way more.
I don't want to make this monthly column too pretentious, so I won't try and sound as a music expert, nor even put here loads of albums. Just a couple every month so to give you a start and a, let's call it motivation to go on yourself and explore music. Submissions are always accepted, so don't hesitate and send us your own albums and creations so that we can promote you!
Orfeo 9 Rock Opera composed by Tito Schipa Jr that interprets the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in a more mystical way, typical of the 70s, and project the characters in a modern world that allows who's listening to find themselves into the story told. Terra e Libertà Concept album composed by Modena City Ramblers which merge Irish folk with sounds typical of the South America, telling and portraying in an original and engeging way most of One Hundred Years of Solitude, written by the great Gabrel Garcia Marquez.
They consider themself an Indie/Alternative/Folk Punk/Emo band and they first performed in June 2011. From Holbrook (NY) The Real Whitaker Todd already released three EPs, a single and a full length with very interesting sounds from acoustic to rough punk passing through all directions. Suburban Ballet also sees many collaborations with several local artists, something that sure helped the band being known. When did it all start and how? Tommy: The Real Whitaker Todd started right after the breakup of my old band back in 2011. I knew I still wanted to make songs. I wrote lyrics for the old band, but never music so trying to do the latter for the first time was difficult. Jon and I got together about six months later and recorded the Illustrious EP over the next couple of months. Jon: Yeah, I was a senior in a little recording school and Tommy and I were friends on Tumblr and he messaged me, I said yes, I had no idea what I was recording, but I was down. Nick: I think that’s a loaded question, in that I feel as though “The Real Whitaker Todd” didn’t so much start, but rather evolved. Tommy performed as a solo act under the moniker. I was pursuing (and still am pursuing) a modest solo venture when Tommy asked me to provide some of my vocals and instrumentation to his records… Well, it was a no brainer, and I was just thrilled to be recording with one of my best friends and just a like minded friend who I connected with musically from day one of us working/jamming together. I met Jon the producer, and we all sort of clicked. Tommy simultaneously asked Jon and I to become full members of the now band, collective, what have you. We were happy to come aboard. Although in my opinion a phenomenal guitarist, Jon Clarke came on as our bassist. And we have just added Matt from local favorites Best Left Unsaid. I believe the band will continue to evolve. Who is Whitaker Todd? Tommy: That’s actually a joke, in a sense. I used to write a lot of short pieces of fiction and there were several stories that contained a character called Whitaker Todd who was largely based on me. However, those stories were all awful and never saw the light of day, so calling myself (when the band was originally just me) The Real Whitaker Todd was kind of a joke since no one knew who the fake one was to begin with. Did you attend any particular music school or course to learn how to play instruments? How many instruments do you play? Tommy: I took guitar lessons for about two years, but that’s about it. Besides guitar, I play a little bit of ukulele (but not much since Nick’s always borrowing it haha) and I know a few chords on piano. I would definitely be open to learning more piano stuff since I’ve always wanted to learn how to play. Jon: I do go to a music school, but I’m focused in Sound Recording. I use a lot of music theory for the bass parts (especially in Hamartia) and I kinda use it for the lead guitar parts. I help Nick with some keyboard parts too, just some triad inversions and stuff. I learned guitar through a teacher for about 2 years and then decided to learn on my own from there. Nick: My Aunte Jannete, just about the sweetest woman on the planet, is a classical piano teacher. I played by ear and once I was learning classical peices, I could fill in the blanks, so to speak, and put the peices together. I taught myself all of the most common and more advanced chords and scales. However I rely heavily on improvisation and my musical ear, of which I am extremely grateful, and evidently Jon, Jon knows theory. I prefer 1 part theory 3 parts winging it, and seeing what comes out! Did the lineup change much since the first EP? Tommy: Absolutely. Until we recorded Hamartia, The Real Whitaker Todd was just me on vocals/guitar with Jon doing the engineering plus whoever felt like helping out, but now we’ve got an official lineup with Jon on bass and Nick on keyboards as well as vocals and we just recruited a drummer as well, as Nick said earlier. Jon: It has definitely been a weird band in the past. But now we actually have members, and I’m not just the recording engineer behind it all. How do you work when creating a song? And what about a whole album? Tommy: Up until now, I would write the entire song (music and lyrics) myself and bring it to the others as a finished product. Then, they would write their own parts using mine as reference. But now that we’re an official band, I hope to do a lot more writing together when I get home from school as opposed to separately. Jon: After Tommy is finished writing them, he sends me demos and I start to construct “Pseudo Songs” which is basically programmed-drums, scratch track worthy guitar and bass parts. No vocals. This then goes back and forth. We did this for Hamartia and it made the recording and writing process a lot easier and cleaner. I’m terrible at writing, but I can create around something that had be previously written. Nick: The way I write music is different then the other members. For the most part I have been given chords, and sometimes listened to the “garage band” psuedo track but really, I just get my own feel for the structure, and write an arrangement, weather it be piano, organ, or most recently on Hamartia, synth!! I just do my own thing, which is really the only way I operate at 110% is to be left to my devices. I am truly grateful for not being in a band of music Nazis and rather some awesome dudes that can take and give great constructive criticisms and really let me have a little bit of free range creatively. It’s collaborative and it's loose, and it's just sort of a think tank of “hmm maybe this would sound cool,” ultimately boiling down to Tommy’s brainchild. But obviously he likes the stuff we do, as we are still around! haha! Who are your personal music influences? Tommy: Bright Eyes, the Wonder Years, Pink Floyd, and Neutral Milk Hotel. Plus, any of the local bands we’ve watched/performed with like Best Left Unsaid, We Take Fire, Monster Band etc. I look up to. Jon: For bass I look at bands like Rancid, Wilco, and Deerhunter. For guitar, I think it’s mostly Wilco and just old school 80’s hardcore punk. Nick: Jackson Browne, Conor Oberst, and Taylor Goldsmith I personally took one of Tommy’s poems I really love and turned it into a music piece (if I may call it music). Do you consider poems and songs to be related or to be two completely different things? Tommy: For me, it depends. A lot of the lyrics from Suburban Ballet come from poems I’d already written so I would say that they’re pretty interchangeable. How much the events of your personal life influence your music? Tommy: Every song I write is very personal. Every song on Illustrious was about a girl I liked for a very long time while Suburban Ballet drew from various aspects of me and my friends’ personal lives while entering adulthood. Hamartia is the sequel to that, and I think the main message of that record is just trying to make the best of a life that can sometimes be kind of shitty. What do you really want to convey through your music? Tommy: It’s about making a connection; I want people that feel the same way I do to know that they aren’t alone. What is your advice to anyone who wishes to start a band or any music project? Tommy: Be real. Like, for example, don’t write love songs if you’ve never had feelings for someone before. You need to be honest with yourself and with your audience because in reality, there is no better way in getting the message that you want to get across to people. And don’t do it to get famous; it takes the purity in creativity right out if the wrong motives are there. However, there is nothing wrong with wanting people to hear and enjoy your music. Jon: Expect nothing. There are a lot of times when your hopes will come down and it’s better to be prepared than to be begging from forgiveness from the “industry”. And also knowing what you’re playing is great; I cannot tell you how many times I have to ask Tommy what his songs mean so I can play them better. Nick: I agree with Tommy wholeheartedly in that you need to be genuine in your efforts, explore all the different musical avenues you’d like. I’m certainly eclectic, but you can have all sorts of fancy furniture but there has to be steel in the walls. And what I mean is that your core beliefs and the heart of what you write, should always come from an honest place whether it be personal account, or exploring different perspectives. You should stay true to what it is that you hold dear and don’t get up on the soap box unless you really feel like you have something to say. I could think of a certain subject, and nothing. Or think of another,and in 35 minutes, I have two verses a chorus and bridge all of which have words that I will stand behind in any crowd. I’ve always admired Jackson Browne, Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes, and Taylor Goldsmith as a colossal influence of mine. Hero worship isn’t healthy (as we learned from SpongeBob) and you should go your own path, but having someone your admire so purely, to me, can do nothing but help the creative process. With their recently released EP titeld Hamartia, you can find The Real Whitaker Todd on facebook, soundcloud, Tommy's youtube channel and bandcamp where you can buy their records naming your own price!
Updates
Hello everybody, here is the nerve centre of this dead blog. First of all, since I'm here, it's not completely dead, so yay. I'm going to work here and try to revive this blog and try to make a quality blog. I'll do my best but since I am alone don't expect too much. But I have faith in this and step by step things are going to work well. I hope. Sure I will need all your support and constructive criticism and also your patience. But here is the thing, if you think you can help with articles and stuff, just submit to me. If you think you can be really active on the blog and keep the quality good, then ask me and I will be sure to give you the power to run this blog with me. In second place, I am searching for emerging artists to interview, so if you know emerging bands or single artists and would like to see them here being interviewed, send messages here and I'll do my best to interview them! In the end, I hope to be able to update really soon, with whatever article will be ready, so wish me luck!
We are a Rock magazine based in NYC. Our 13th issue is hot off the press featuring our kickass cover artist Jocke Berg of Hardcore Super. Also in this issue we have Stevie Dacanay of Buckcherry, Tom Keifer, Trouble Circus, Sister Hyde, and so much more to feast your eyes on! Don’t forget to check out our past issues and spread the word of Krashcity Mag!! Just go to the link above and it will bring you straight to the 13th issue. Also check out our website krashcity.net which will lead you to lots more goodies! Enjoy and spread the word of rock n roll!
Beyoncé's super secret album just dropped this morning, causing quite a stir.In one of the songs, “Flawless” she samples Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's TEDx talk on feminism. In the song she says:
We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller
We say to girls – you can have ambition, but not too much
You should aim to be successful but not too successful otherwise you will threaten the man
Because I am female I am expected to aspire to marriage
I am expected to make my life choices always keeping in mind that marriage is the most important
A marriage can be a source of joy and love and mutual support
But why do we teach girls to aspire to marriage and we don’t teach boys the same?
We raise girls to see each other as competitors not for jobs or for accomplishments,
Which I think can be a good thing
But for the attention of men
We teach girls that they cannot be sexual beings in the way that boys are
Feminist: A person who believes in the economic, social and political equality of the sexes.
If you haven’t yet, check out Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s interview on Fresh Air for her newest book Americanah. The book also made the NPR best list for 2013.
Okay, I have so many questions about these new albums.
Is David’s album going to have a theme like On An Island did? Just, a general image tying the songs together? I mean, I know this album isn’t going to be like On An Island—the idea that Crosby, Stills and Nash are guesting on it already hints that it won’t be as… orchestra-y (sorry for the lack of good words).
And is Roger Waters’ album going to reflect any of the things he’s experienced with Israel vs. Palestine conflict? How specific is the storyline going to be? Amused to Death was, in my opinion, vague and covering the idea of worldwide amusement killing off all the humans, so I’m wondering if this concept will be more concrete and grounded somewhere?
Pink Floyd ~ Album Covers, part 1 of 2.
The concept albums that Pink Floyd is known for have had a curious effect on music. People tend to play the song “Money” from the seminal “Dark Side of the Moon” album on the radio. Well, if you take Money as a single, and remove it from the rest of the album, it works quite well. However, if you play the whole album in one sitting, the song takes on much more depth. That is kind of the rule for Pink Floyd: when in doubt, listen to the whole album. They wrote the songs to be played as a set.
1967: the Piper at the Gates of Dawn ~ This was the debut, and it was decidedly under Syd Barrett’s direction. The album is, to put it mildly, psychedelic. In point of fact, it is usually considered the best Psychedelic Rock album of the ’60s, or at least tied for number 1. Personally, I found it hard to get through. I know, I am a philistine. It is not for the casual Pink Floyd fan, put it that way. And Syd Barrett was at or near his best on this LP. I do not like Syd Barrett as a singer, a song writer, or a musician. That is a personal choice, and it is my opinion.
1968: a Saucerful of Secrets ~ This was the last album that Syd Barrett contributed to, and it is more psychedelic than its predecessors. Syd Barrett did not leave Pink Floyd in the sense that they had a meeting and decided to fire him. It was more like Syd Barrett dropped so much acid that he could not continue to play at all. I think they actually admitted him to an asylum for a while.
The best explanation for the Syd Barrett albums released by Pink Floyd is one word: Drugs. Lots and lots of drugs. It is why Pink Floyd has the reputation as a pothead/acid casualty band. A lot of people have retroactively gone back through it and found interesting stuff. If you are a music major, a sound engineer, or a classic rock aficionado, Syd Barrett is probably up your alley. I love music, but I cannot sit through a little less than 2 hours of Syd Barrett, David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Nick Mason, and Richard Wright experimenting with feedback sounds and looping. It is boring and it is weird. That is right, Pink Floyd fanatics: I said it. Same goes for all those people out there with FLAC files of all of the music that Syd Barrett participated in: It sucks in surround-sound too.
1969: Soundtrack from the film More ~ The movie was one of the Drug Culture/Hippy Hedonistic movies. Like Easy Rider, or the Trip. Basically, a guy graduates from a college with a degree in math or something, and then he hooks up with a girl who is screwing a former NAZI/”Doctor”. Everybody does heroin, and they all die. The soundtrack for the film is equally interesting and uplifting. All in all, it is a laugh riot. A thrill ride of glee. In case my sarcasm is not clear enough: Syd Barrett had just melted his brain on drugs, so the album they released directly after that was kind of um, depressing.
1969: Ummagumma ~ Double album. The second disc was all live. It is a very interesting set of songs. But, clocking in at just over 2 hours, maybe about 15 minutes of it is really good. The band hates it too.
1970: Atom Heart Mother (the one with the cow on it) ~ It sucked. Just listen to it if you do not believe me. But I am telling you now, it sucked.
1971: Meddle ~ Not bad. They were finding their sound. After Syd Barrett left, they kind of lost their way. Meddle was like the prototype for Dark Side of the Moon.
1972: Obscured by Clouds ~ Again, not bad. Meddle was a lot better, and Dark Side of the Moon is the best album Pink Floyd released, according to sales anyways. So, this album usually gets overlooked. Upon listening to this album, I have decided (IMHO) that overlooking this album is a good course of action. Just a suggestion.
1973: Dark Side of the Moon ~ This album was on the Billboard top 40 from 1973 until 1988. That is 741 weeks, to be precise. So any review I give this album is inconsequential. It really is that good though. I prefer the album “Animals”, which came 4 years later, but that is because I spent most of high school and college listening to both albums. I encourage you to make up your own opinions of it, and that is all. I will say this much: do not listen to just “Money” or just “Time”. Listen to the whole album. It is about 40 minutes long, and the concept is that the band is essentially musing about what they feel is important. They talk about life, mental health, money, the afterlife, death, and time. And it is consistently listenable. I bought the SACD edition that was remastered a while back, and it sounds awesome. I bought the CD because I actually own a first pressing of the LP, along with all of the inserts. Go listen to this album if you have never heard it. It will quite literally change your life. Also: the Wizard of Oz thing is a coincidence, and a thin one at that. It does not seem interesting unless you are baked out of your mind, and even then it is kind of close, but it still does not quite work. Pink Floyd has drugged-out groupies. The groupies watched the Wizard of Oz and started to freak out about it, that is the story. Also, the band pretty much stopped doing drugs after Syd nuked his skull. Just an FYI.
1975: Wish You Were Here ~ This was kind of the beginning of the end for Pink Floyd. The album title is referring to Syd Barrett, by the way. The title song is great, no doubt about it. The best song on here is “Have a Cigar” though. Here are some of the lyrics, just so you get the idea:
Come in here, dear boy! Have a cigar! You’re gonna go far! You’re gonna fly high, you’re never gonna die, you’re gonna make it if you try, they’re gonna love you!
Well I’ve always had a deep respect and I mean that most sincerely! The band is just fantastic, that is really what I think. Oh, by the way, which one’s Pink?
And did we tell you the name of the game, boy? We call it “Riding the Gravy Train”…
John Legend-Love In The Future
As “safe” as he seems, John Legend has always had a careless streak. Musically, he’s been the type of boyfriend prone to adulterous slip-ups, yet able to suavely explain (and thus successfully void) his negligence. (He once pitched dancing as a solution to a spat as if it were a thesis: “We can argue and fuss all night/But I propose that we go to the flo’ and just slow dance.”) Even in its mushy moments, his first two albums, Get Lifted(2004) and Once Again (2006), revelled in a sense of blind navigation. The cocky, considerate man occasionally marred by machismo made trifling love sound sexy. When he vowed to repent, it was usually behind a smirk.
This month (September), the 34-year-old singer/songwriter/pianist becomes a married man in real life (to his witty model fiancée Chrissy Teigen), and his fourth solo album,Love In The Future, parallels reality. “The title kind of embraces where I’m heading in life,” he’s said. “It’s the beginning of something new.” It’s also the end.
For R&B artists, the path from reckless singledom to stability is all but pre-paved, a fitting evolution that some (Justin Timberlake) nestle into better than others (Usher). Legend is easily an adult-contemporary standout. But the slightly dickish old-soul apologist has grown into a tamed humanitarian whose albums were becoming progressively less adventurous—the Alicia Keys career track. Though experimental,Evolver (2008) felt forced. Love In The Future eases up on the weak global pop & B and re-ups on soul. It all sounds “good for you,” like an ad for true love. Not always exciting; dull even, from the outside, but more beautiful up close.
Get Lifted, sophisticated as it was, spoke to twenty-somethings under construction.Future’s demo is much smarter. Instead of being aroused by danger and uncertainty, Legend leaps into domestic living. He sells odes and peddles wedding songs, including the vocally piercing “All Of Me” and lead single “Made to Love,” a spacy track about destined relationships on which Legend could pass for Cee Lo. He positions himself as Mr. Imperfect, cautioning against silly expectations on the gorgeously spare “Open Your Eyes,” which samples Common’s “The Light”: “Are you expecting to find a love, love that’s right?/Darling, open your eyes/Let me show you the light/’Cause you’ll never find a love that’s right… Girl, you think you’re so wise.” He acknowledges his old self—“The Beginning” is an unofficial sequel to “Again” and “Another Again”—but this time “doing it again” means gladly boning the same woman, not falling into a cycle of cheating.
There’s minimal risk here. Much of Future glosses over the fun of being a fool because there’s a point when mischief just seems juvenile (your 20s are for making mistakes and all that). It gets a little alright-already. Legend’s “hey there” morning voice can only do so much with the album’s most mechanical lines (“Love is an ocean,” etc.). Still, he’s love’s ultimate salesman and you’re compelled to do as he sings now, not as he did.
When he does express confusion, it’s about the uneasiness of finding the one. For him, the crazy-in-love feeling is comforting. Built around warm soul echoes (Kanye West splits executive production with Legend and Dave Tozer), “Who Do We Think We Are” finds him willingly drowning in commitment while Rick Ross (always a strangely perfect complement) raps about jewels dripping on his Timberlands.
Legend still pushes sexy R&B, but this is date-night music, not Robin Thicke debauchery. What’s adventure? Playing hooky from church to make love in the living room. The rash and damaged women of his youth are replaced with a one and only whose biggest flaw is nitpicking her own. His foreplay is telling her to pick out baby names (“boy or girl?”). And babies are “love tax write-offs.”
While spiraling into a John Legend binge listening writing this, it was easy to get lost in frivolous songs like “Alright” and “I Can Change,” where the playboy only half-pledged commitment, something Love In The Future gleefully champions. As younger artists like Frank Ocean and Miguel stumble and leg-drop through love on record, John Legend 4.0 is the wise Real Time with Bill Maher talking head, chuckling from the sidelines. He knows the future isn’t as exciting, but it’s definitely more stable.
Unknown source, date possibly 2003
Albums Above (left to right): Raising Hell (Run DMC), Graduation (Kanye West), Stankonia (Outkast), Life After Death (Notorious B.I.G.), 2pac Greatest Hits (2pac), The Eminem Show (Eminem), Licensed To Ill (Beastie Boys)
Click Here for more good rap albums.
If you haven't had the chance to see them live or at least listen to their music on bandcamp already, you then should totally go check Bad Cardigan's blog. They are Jack Anwyl and Tom Randall, an amazing acoustic duo from Lancashire (UK). Both are talented singers and guitarists who create wonderful harmonies that give deep personality to their own lyrics. Bad Cardigan regularly play concerts in Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and London, and have supported The Levellers multiple times. They also have just played at the eleventh edition of the Beautiful Days Festival. Since I had the opportunity to meet them personally, and confirm how friendly, kind and passionate they are, I was very excited at the idea to ask them some questions for this newly born music blog.
How did you meet and how did everything begin? Tom: At college, in English literature. Jack discovered I could play guitar and him and his friend asked me to a jam night. There used to be three of us but then that dissolved and it became just me and Jack. Did you attend any particular music school or courses to play guitar and sing? Do you play other instruments? Tom: I had guitar lessons when I was younger but jack hasn't. He used to be a drummer. I don't play any other instruments, I just focus on guitar but I’d like to be able to play the piano as well. Who writes the songs and the arrangements? Tom: Basically we start off with the basis of a song and then develop it together. I tend to be more of the guitar side of things whereas Jack is the lyrics side of things. What are your personal musical influences? Tom: John Frusciante and currently a lot of folk and finger picking guitar music. Jack: Dallas Green and Sheamus Heaney (he's a poet, as Jack's into lyrics [Tom's note]). What is your favourite song (or more than one) of your musical influences? Tom: It's impossible to choose! Rubbish answer, sorry! What is your favourite song (or more than one) of yours and why? Tom: I like NEDS because the lyrics are good and the guitar parts are good and written. Jack: Nursery Rhymes because it's very meaningful. Tom wrote it, but I have it tattooed on my legs! Personally my favourite song of yours is “The Goodies”. Does this come from events of personal life? Tom: Yes it does, but revealing what it's about may change your view of the song. How much have the events of your personal lives influence your music? Tom: All the lyrics are definitely influenced by experiences that we’ve had, or have been close to people who have had them. What do you really want to convey through your music? Tom: We just want to create music that we enjoy and that others, hopefully, will too. What is your advise to anyone who wishes to start a band or any music project? Tom: Make sure you completely get on with everyone who's in your band and that everyone brings something different to the project. If you're interested in their music, you can find them on tumblr, facebook, twitter, myspace, reverbnation, youtube and bandcamp, where you also can download their songs for free. And, of course, if you have the opportunity to see them live, go enjoy the concert! (via elfoenel)
Artists above (left to right): Stevie Wonder, Isaac Hayes, James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone, Chaka Khan, Rick James, Prince, Curtis Mayfield, Teena Marie
Important albums
(List(s) of more important figures, albums, and songs in funk: Digital Dream Door’s Top 100 Funk Artists of All Time, All Music: Funk Overview, Funk Wikipedia, Essential Funk Artists)
(via Utabay)
Multiple sources—very hopeful ones—suggest that Led Zeppelin is going to come back together for a reunion tour, and the buzz has been making many people very excited for a while now. But, before we further excite ourselves, it’s time to get clear on what the future has in store for us and the members of Zeppelin.
Knowing that Robert Plant usually would not be into reuniting with the his former Led Zeppelin band members, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones, seeing Plant even hint at a yes is an outstanding, overwhelming hoopla just by itself. If the tour were to take place, it was rumored to happen next year in 2014, and it seemed certain that Robert Plant was actually open to doing it.
But, upon reading up on this rumor, I found not only that when I looked for articles containing Robert Plant’s cooperation, only a couple of sources said he wouldn’t mind joining his former bandmates—but that was implied from what he was saying, and there’s no proof of an actual yes—but John Paul Jones openly denied any actual possibility of a tour (for next year).
Jones, himself, is working on an opera. Knowing that the bassist is very diverse in his musical choices, he’d prefer to put his time into this opera before anything Led Zeppelin related.
So, even though Robert Plant has “nothing to do in 2014.”, John Paul Jones’ “2014 is full of opera at the moment.” You can interpret the “at the moment” hopefully, but with Led Zeppelin’s record of uncertainty with comeback tours in the past, I don’t know if it’s ever really going to happen. We can only hope that maybe, if 2014 doesn’t work in the fans favor, then 2015 is the year of the Zeppelin.
(Sources: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-23/led-zeppelin-s-plant-tour-raises-reunion-hope-review.html,
http://www.ibtimes.com/led-zeppelin-reunion-tour-john-paul-jones-shoots-down-robert-plant-offer-says-2014-full-opera-me,
http://www.ibtimes.com/led-zeppelin-reunion-tour-john-paul-jones-shoots-down-robert-plant-offer-says-2014-full-opera-me,
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/Jun/10/no-led-zeppelin-reunion-next-year/)
(Via Utabay)
