AOL/Spinner is currently streaming the following:
• Kiss Each Other Clean by Iron & Wine
• White Wilderness by John Vanderslice (MP3)
• Gutter Rainbows by Talib Kweli
• There Are Rules by The Get Up Kids (MP3)
• No Time for Dreaming by Charles Bradley
More streams below, and as always, let us know if you hear anything good…
Continue reading Album Streams: Iron and Wine, John Vanderslice, more
Below are the fascinating things we’ve posted to Twitter recently. In reverse chronological order, just like Twitter…
• On the toilet! RT @johnsellers: This tattooed dude lip-synching the Perfect Strangers theme always cracks me up. http://bit.ly/fGaaBe Jan 24, 2011 8:55am
• Neko Case, now on Twitter. #welcome RT @neko_case: Ok, it’s really me. I’m taking over. YES! My first tweet ever. Carl badgered me into it. Jan 24, 2011 8:48am
• My new favorite Kanye tweet. Bassoon is real kingish. RT @kanyewest: I just threw some bassoon on this muthafucka Jan 24, 2011 8:46am
• Dude’s work ethic is off the hook. RT @kanyewest: MY NEW ALBUM COMING THIS SUMMER Jan 24, 2011 8:43am
• RT @aquadrunkard: yeoaww RT @largeheartedboy mp3s of the Rolling Stones’ ‘2120 Michigan Avenue (The Unreleased 1964 Blues Album)’ http://bit.ly/hlpvgC Jan 22, 2011 4:08pm
Lots more below, and you might consider joining the 1,025 other people following us on Twitter so you can keep up with this important stuff as it happens…
Video: She & Him – Don’t Look Back from Merge Records
Good heavens, just when you think there’s no way that Zooey Deschanel could possibly get any cuter, she releases yet another video that ramps up her adorability factor once again. I’ve recently been revisiting Nancy Sinatra’s catalog for the first time in a while, and She & Him definitely fit within that tradition. This video premiered on Design*Sponge, which makes sense considering the props, but who can pay attention to the furniture when Miss Zooey is doing the Shimmy?
The top selling album in the whole goddamned country last week only managed to sell 44,000 copies. I’m happy for Cake, I guess, but dang. I will survive? Barely. How low can this shit go? 44,000 people? My grandma has that many friends on Facebook.
1. Cake – “Showroom of Compassion” – 44,000 (debut)
2. Cage the Elephant – “Thank You Happy Birthday” – 39,000 (debut)
3. Taylor Swift – “Speak Now,” – 35,000 (down 32%)
4. Bruno Mars’ “Doo-Wops & Hooligans”- 32,000 (down 15%)
5. Nicki Minaj – “Pink Friday” – 32,000 (down 17%)
6. “Country Strong” soundtrack – 29,000 (up less than 1%)
7. Steel Magnolia – “Steel Magnolia” – 28,000 (debut)
8. Rihanna – “Loud” – 28,000 (down 16%)
9. Mumford & Sons – “Sigh No More” – 26,000 (down 24%)
10. Kanye West – “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” – 25,000 (down 24%)
• Overall album sales in this past chart week (ending Jan. 16) totaled 4.9 million units
• Digital track sales this past week totaled 27.5 million downloads
Video: Talib Kweli – “Get By”
Like most God fearing Americans, I’ve been spending a lot of time the past several weeks listening to Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. It’s got me reflecting on what a great producer he is. In fact, I think he’s arguably the greatest producer in hip hop history. Not only does he create incredible beats for his own work, but he’s put together some of the best instrumental tracks for other rappers like Jay-Z, Rick Ross, Drake, Common, and others.
“Get By” by Talib Kweli is a case in point. Off Kweli’s album Quality from 2002, Kanye samples Nina Simone and Love to create the beat, and it has a great original chorus to boot. Talib is a great rapper, and you hear it in this track. Yes, it’s from 2002, but you can hear Kanye’s and Talib’s genius in this one. Give it a listen.
NPR is currently streaming the following:
• Wanda Jackson, The Party Ain’t Over (produced by Jack White)
More streams below, and as always, let us know if you hear anything good…
Continue reading Album Streams: Wanda Jackson, Gang of Four, more
Below are the fascinating things we’ve posted to Twitter recently. In reverse chronological order, just like Twitter…
• RT @annarborcom: Owner of Encore Recordings in #AnnArbor plans retirement as employees hope to buy store: http://bit.ly/gkQAPU Jan 15, 2011 12:37pm
• RT @slicingeyeballs: Video: Badly Drawn Boy covers Stone Roses’ ‘I Wanna Be Adored’ http://su.pr/1uX0HJ #stoneroses Jan 15, 2011 12:15pm
• RT @metrowheelman: #YvonneElliman is all over this Clapton record; beautiful ARP synth haze on Let It Grow — could srsly be an SFA jam. Jan 15, 2011 12:33am
• Oh man, snotty quotes mean WAR!!! RT @britneyspears: @kanyewest Thanks for ‘letting’ us be #1. Much appreciated…. -Adam Leber, Manager Jan 14, 2011 5:36pm
Lots more below, and you might consider joining the 1,025 other people following us on Twitter so you can keep up with this important stuff as it happens…
A recent interview with Beatles film archivist Ron Furmanek reveals that Apple Records and EMI have been sitting on fully restored, complete versions of “The Beatles at Shea Stadium” and “Let It Be” that Furmanek worked on during the time of the Anthology series in 1995.
“You can’t beat the original camera negative. Apple has the originals. It doesn’t have any fades. If there’s a fadeout for a commercial, the negative doesn’t have the fadeout,” he says. “Shea Stadium, other than the sound issues, of any rock concert that was ever shot in the ’60s of any group, I think Shea Stadium is the highest quality film. It looks better than ‘Woodstock,’ ‘Gimme Shelter,’ ‘Monterey Pop.’ It really does. Go look at it in ‘Anthology.” It’s stunning. Put on the headphones and listen to it in ‘Anthology’. You’re going to hear some true stereo there, like ‘Dizzy Miss Lizzy and ‘I’m Down’.”
He says the restored “Let It Be” looks equally fantastic.”When I restored it, I sat down with (Neil Aspinall) and Derek (Taylor) up in the screening room where we were editing ‘Anthology’. And they sat and watched the entire film. They were blown away. They couldn’t believe the difference. It’s a fun film to watch after I restored it. It’s lively. It’s crystal clear. There’s no grain. There’s no blow-up. There’s one time Paul says something to George, but other than that, the movie’s a lot of fun.
“It’s not dark, it’s not poor quality like the VHS or laserdisc that was released. It was shot in 16mm Kodachrome and Echtachrome and it’s gorgeous. There’s no problem with it. I remixed the entire second half of the film from the 8 track master multitrack tapes and it is in stereo, starting with the sessions in the studio and the concert on the roof.”
Derek Taylor died in 1997. It’s time to release this stuff.
The Beatles: iTunes, Amazon, Insound, eMusic, MOG, wiki
Via shtv.
Continue reading Beatles Sitting On Restored Films Since 1995
This is great news! The Dead Milkmen have recorded seventeen new songs and plan to release an album in March or April. See a few more details on their web site or in a response singer Rodney Anonymous gave to Philebrity, including this fantastic tidbit:
The cover art is currently unavailable as our lawyer has informed us that the image we originally intended to use – a Photoshopped image of Michele Bachmann blowing a Thomson’s gazelle – could quite possibly lead to “A whole lot of fucking around in court.”
God, I love this band!
Dead Milkmen: iTunes, Amazon, Insound, eMusic, MOG, wiki
Via Slicing Up Eyeballs.
According to Billboard this week “earns the distinction of notching the lowest-ever sales frame for a No. 1 album since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking data in 1991” and predicts “there’s potential to break that record too, as no blockbuster albums are on the horizon.”
1. Taylor Swift – “Speak Now” – 52,000 (down 32%)
2. Nicki Minaj – “Pink Friday” – 39,000 (down 36%)
3. Bruno Mars – “Doo-Wops & Hooligans” – 38,000 (down 15%)
4. Daft Punk – “TRON: Legacy” soundtrack – 34,000 (down 37%)
5. Eminem – “Recovery” – 33,000 (down 47%)
6. Rihanna – “Loud” – 33,000 (down 46%)
7. Kanye West – “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” – 33,000 (down 43%)
8. Mumford & Sons’ “Sigh No More” – 31,000 (down 20%)
9. Jason Aldean – “My Kinda Party” – 29,000 (down 15%)
10. “Country Strong” soundtrack- 28,000 (up 477%)
• Overall album sales in this past chart week (ending Jan. 9) totaled 5.4 million units
• Digital track sales this past week totaled 29.8 million downloads
