Thanks to everyone who submitted a story about Africa, U2 –or even Bonalmost– for the contest to win the In The Name of Love CD of U2 covers by African musicians.
Boyhowdy’s story was an early favorite (make your wife read that, boyhowdy!) and so many of you shared great tales of the ways U2 has been present at different memorable moments in your life. However the winner is Russell, because of the way I loved this paragraph he wrote about seeing U2 in 1980:
“There was real glory in an Edge solo – a dazzling scattering of light and energy that detonated dreams. Exhilaration. Running from that concert in the rain to catch a late night train remains vivid and gleaming: music mattered, life mattered. Everything was potentially magical.”
Russell, thanks, and let me know where to send the winnings. Enjoy.
NEW CONTEST: Tristan Prettyman is a musician from the San Diego area with a lovely sunrise homespun voice, and an approachable acoustic sound that I dig.
She’s designed a cool music-oriented tank top for the ladies, picturing the chord breakdown of her song “Hello” (the title track of her album, out this week). Stream the tune on her MySpace, and please leave me a comment if you’d like to win the shirt (via Elwood Clothing). The folks running the contest would like entrants to leave an email address to opt-in for Tristan Prettyman news in the future, but it’s up to you.
LISTEN: Here’s a cover Tristan did of French-Israeli artist Yael Naim‘s “New Soul” – that catchy ditty from the MacBook Air ad.
I was fascinated with this concept album when I first read about it: Twelve artists and musical groups from all parts of Africa gather together to cover U2 songs with traditional African instrumentation, percussion, and even languages. In many cases, the songs are completely restructured into something you can feel rising from the ground up, the beats thumping into your deepest hollows.
And you know — I think that this is how the type of love that Bono originally sings about is supposed to sound; like a well rising, voices joining together. Pride (In The Name of Love) – Soweto Gospel Choir
NEW CONTEST! One winner will get a copy of In The Name Of Love: Africa Celebrates U2 just by leaving me a comment with either a good U2 story, a good Africa story, or both. I’ll pick a winner and send the booty on its merry way.
PS – I checked, and I ain’t got a Monday Music Roundup in me. Not today.
Congrats to Brian R. who was just randomly selected as the winner of the Kurt Cobain DVD About A Son.
It took me just a few weeks to remember about this one, but my benign neglect translates into good timing because the film was just released on DVD yesterday.
I just got a package in the mail this very afternoon with the two new Eels CDs and I must say that these are the finest and most intriguing liner notes I’ve read in a long time. They readlly put a good deal of thought into this album. In addition to cool scans of all kinds of memorabilia, E comments on each of the 24 tracks on the best-of collection, and all 50 songs on the rarities comp. So necessary.
If you are a serious fan, you’ll get all excited-like on your insides reading his stories behind how he wrote all these tunes (“Jon Brion came over to my house and decided we were going to conduct an experiment where I’d go downstairs for 30 minutes and write a song and he would do the same upstairs. This is what I wrote.”) and the notes on the recording (“I should have been a bongo player. My girlfriend sometimes played the celeste on this one. Sometimes you gotta let Yoko have a little bit of the spotlight.”)
The new fan will be enticed to take a listen by reading over what he says, because E wields his words sharply and incisively, and is an entertaining storyteller. As he says at the end of the notes for the best-of collection, “Casual users: if you’ve enjoyed this enough, perhaps I’ll see you over in the USELESS TRINKETS aisle for more.” I think you should go.
WINNERS #1 – jay strange (thanks for the story jay) #2 – Kari #3 – Scott/sml1771
All the comment entries were so wonderful to read and only made me appreciate the lyrics of E’s tunes even more. I kept saying, “Oh yeah! I forgot about that line!” Read em over. Or read E’s All-Time Favorite Joyous Songs:
So I am back from Kauai, after the most brutal red eye flight home last night that just kicks all the vacation relaxation right outta you, back into the biting 11 degree weather. It’s sunny today here, so that’s nice, and I do have to smile at my tan peeking out from the fleece, as it reminds me of lying on Poipu Beach less than 24 hours ago, watching the humpback whales play just offshore. Seeing whales like that as they spout and breach is one of the few experiences left for grownups to spark that flicker of a childlike sense of wonderment. Those animals are incredible.
Anyways, yesterday was also notable for E (Mark Oliver Everett), the multi-instrumentalist artist behind the band Eels, because he released two new albums to the world.
Meet The EELS: Essential EELS Vol. 1, 1996-2006 is a great place to start if you know little about this stellar artist. It collects 24 tracks spanning a ten year period and 12 videos, to show first-timers who this E fella is.
The companion album goes deeper: EELS Useless Trinkets: B-Sides, Soundtracks, Rarities and Unreleased 1996-2006 has 50 hard-to-find B-sides, film contributions and unreleased tracks, and a DVD of live performance footage from Lollapalooza 2006. All the music has been digitally remastered, with new liner notes from E.
NEW TRIPLE TROUBLE CONTEST (Please tell me which one/s you are entering for – 1, 2, or 3)
#1 – Someone wins a vinyl 7″ — limited edition (3000), signed by E, featuring two tracks – both previously unreleased: A-side)”Climbing To The Moon” (Jon Brion remix) B-side)”I Want To Protect You”
#2 – Someone else wins the Meet The Eels CD+DVD
#3 – A third someone wins the Useless Trinkets b-sides 2-CD+DVD
TO ENTER: E has written some gorgeously sad songs that leave me wide-eyed how someone could so precisely nail a sentiment in two or three lyrics, a few brutal scather songs, some fun and off-the-wall contributions, and several that make me want to dance. If you feel so compelled, please let’s chat about your favorite Eels song or lyric. To keep it fair for those who are new to Eels and want to be introduced, the winner will be randomly picked for each of the three prize packs, so you can win even if you can’t discuss favorites (yet). I’ll run this through Sunday or so.
Sorry I forgot to wrap this up sooner: For that cool Ian Dury 7″ contest, I have picked my two random winners. Eli from New York and khalas/Kelly each won themselves a nice vinyl single of Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll. Thanks for playing, sorry it took me so long. I just got the vinyls the other day; they sound great.
The Brit Box competition was fierce and heavy, neck and neck. The randomly-selected winner from all the wonderful entries was a “vklj” who said that Common People changed his life. Here’s to hoping the Brit Box is more of the same for you, vklj, and please be in touch with your mailing address.
I have a new contest to launch today. Have you heard the quirky, snarly, danceable-punk Cockney perfection of the Ian Dury song, “Sex & Drugs & Rock and Roll”?
To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the entrance of this song and phrase into the lexicon of great English contributions to modern culture, Demon Edsel is issuing a numbered limited edition 7″ single on orange vinyl of the song with a “specially colourised version” of the original picture sleeve (wherein he is looking oh so Lou Reed, if you ask me). The b-side to this 7″ is “Close To Home,” a recording from January 1977 which was only ever issued on an NME cassette in 1981, and has not been re-issued since. Sah-weet!
I have three of these nice little 7″s to give away. Leave me a comment if you would desire the goods.
On the same label, also check out the re-issue of Ian Dury’s first album under his own name, New Boots & Panties (two things we can be grateful for in this mad, mad world). The CD reissue is paired with a DVD that captures Ian Dury & The Blockheads live on BBC’s Sight and Sound In Concert series, recorded at Queen Mary’s College on December 10, 1977. It’s a rare performance that has been languishing in the BBC vaults (along with who knows what all else good stuff) for nearly thirty years.
New contest! This one tails nicely on the heels of my anglophile’s paradise post last month about the Britpop movement. If you find yourself with some UK-centric leanings in your musical selections, here’s a new box set you might wanna throw down for.
I have one box set to give away! In rad packaging, you’ll get:
-DISC ONE:1984-1990. Early modern British influencers like Stones Roses, Happy Mondays, Jesus & Mary Chain, The Smiths, Primal Scream -DISC TWO:1990-1993. The hazy shimmer of the shoegaze movement is traced through acts like Ride, My Bloody Valentine, and The Telescopes -DISC THREE: 1994-1995. Britpop explodes in a crushing supernova. Oasis, Blur, Pulp, Elastica etc. -DISC FOUR: 1995-present. Where we’re going – Ash, The Verve, Super Furry Animals, Mansun, Placebo and more
The 80-page liner note booklet comes with with interviews, memories and essays from Creation Records founder Alan McGee, seminal producers Stephen Street and Alan Moulder and an assortment of artists. Full tracklist here.
To celebrate the release of this box set, vLES (a “virtual Lower East Side” web community set up by MTV) has some special programming this week. Brett Anderson of Suede will be on MTV’s Subterranean tonight to talk about the Brit Box, and on Monday vLES will have an online “Britpop Round Table” streaming from the Bowery Ballroom with Rob Sheffield from Rolling Stone (who wrote this excellent ‘lil book), Rob Dickinson of Catherine Wheel (who I tragically omitted from my last Britpop post) and John Hagelston from Rhino Records. Check here for a full list of the other Brit-centric programming this week.
So, they offered me one box set to either keep, or for contesting. Do not ever say I don’t love you: leave me a comment to win my promo copy of the Brit Box set!
And to wrap up the last contest before we move it along: Aikin from Licorice Pizza was picked as the random winner of the NYC DVD set. Thanks for all the wonderful stories.
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Speaking of awesome music wafting from across the Atlantic, how ’bout that re-formed Verve? They’ve now hit the road, back together in the original lineup, and just completed six shows earlier this month in the UK.
Since the odds of them coming through the U.S. seem to be about the same odds I get on a Stereophonics tour, I have to satisfy myself with reading what folks said about the experience, and trolling YouTube for hazy cellphone video clips. From the moment they first took the stage on Night One in Glasgow, they’ve been playing some seriously rad sets. This vantage point makes me tingle (from the second night in Glasgow):
And listening to this boot from a few nights later at the Empress Ballroom in Blackpool does nothing short of give me little frissons of excitement up and down my spine – hear the crowd sing along with Sonnet, or the wild roar that greets Bittersweet Symphony.
THE VERVE LIVE AT THE EMPRESS BALLROOM BLACKPOOL NOV 6, 2007 [Thanks to taper: Pete Bullock]
And a bit of scene-setting from someone lucky enough to be there:
I was at [the Blackpool show] – arrived just in time to hear ‘Mad Richard’ announce ‘This Is Music’… It was great to finally see the band in their original conception- no extra guitarist, no string section.
What was even more impressive was the fact that so much 1st & 2nd album stuff was on the set…even ON YOUR OWN & MAN CALLED SUN (personal faves). One could argue that a mediocre, crowd satisfying ‘last album’ set would have been enough. But could you really have seen Nick McCabe agreeing to re-form for that kinda live package???!!
Must say [the Empress is] the best venue for this type of gig. Ok the acoustics are not entirely set out for rock bands but the surroundings always make gigs at the Empress very unique. There’s also that ‘outta town’ mentality where a band has purposely avoided the more suitable venues within the vicinity (Manchester Apollo/Uni, Liverpool Uni) and gone with the face of Seasides past ‘Blackpool’-not to mention the sprung floor!…magical!
Overall a grand night had by all…now lets see how the bigger gigs go next year!
It’s New York Week next week on the History Channel. That means when you decide to take a break from your relentless rock and roll lifestyle, you’ll have something better to watch than Cash Cab (lovin it like I do) as you sink into your couch.
Since I am feeling fond of all things New York-related lately, I am going to TiVo this action (it starts November 19th). There’s a big contest going on over at their website where you can get whisked off for a 4 day history-themed tour of NYC, including cool stuff like a private tour of The Met, a tour of the Top Of The Rock on the GE Building/”30 Rock”, tickets to Les Mis, a shopping spree at Macy’s, lodging at the Roosevelt, and dinner at Ruby Foo’s, etc. Not bad.
FUEL/FRIENDS CONTEST: I thought we’d also set up a consolation prize pack here since your chances are like a billion-to-one on that biggie trip:
I have one box set of DVDs from the History Channel on Landmarks of New York to give away. It will school you on the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, the Chrysler Building, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the Empire State Building.
To win this educational diversion, leave me a comment. If you are feeling inspired, please tell me an NYC story. It can be an anecdote or vignette that actually happened to you (like when I saw Vanessa Williams brunching, that was fun). Or tell me a fun music-related tale you heard that took place in New York. Either way; I’ll consider you entered. Leave me a way to get a hold of you if you win, and I’ll pick a victor this weekend.
Say what you will about Oasis (and believe me, for years I did) but two facts that I find undeniably true about them are these: 1) They have made some stomping rock and roll 2) They are never, ever boring to listen to when they talk (when you can understand them)
The contest I launched last weekend was for folks to provide me with the best Gallagher brothers quote that they know of, with two lucky winners getting the new Oasis song “Lord Don’t Slow Me Down“ on a 12-inch vinyl. I don’t exactly understand why you need all those inches for one song –I thought it was 7″– but I ain’t complaining. Maybe the winners can let me know what the extra five inches are for (that’s what she said–sorry, Office joke).
So these winners I picked based on whose quotes made me laugh out loud. Pretty simple.
The two winners are Tony and Christopher:
tony said…
The conversation between Carson Daly and Liam Gallagher on TRL: Carson – “How are you feeling?” Liam – “God-like”
Christopher said…
“Some stuff got damaged, a fire extinguisher got let off in the house. As rock’n'roll as I am, you can’t be making record with foam all over the fucking place.”
- Noel Gallagher, in a Mojo article talking about a 1995 fight between he and Liam in their studio that ended with the ‘doors kicked off, the kitchen wrecked, fridges overturned’, the guitar player locking away air rifles and both of them ‘rolling in the grass, hitting each other with a cricket bat’.
Now that’s just good fun. I’d kinda want to be there for that.
A close runner-up was also this one, who might get something yet:
“What would you rather read? ‘The guy from Keane’s been to a rabbit sanctuary ‘cos one of the rabbits needed a kidney implant, so he swapped his with it’ — or ‘Liam Gallagher sets fire to a policeman in cocaine madness while his brother Noel runs down Oxford Street nude’?”
- Noel Gallagher on why he speaks the truth to the press
And finally, if I were entering my own contest, here is what I would quote: “I was walking along and this chair came flying past me, and another, and another, and I thought, man, is this gonna be a good night.” -Liam Gallagher
Name: Heather Browne Location: Colorado, originally by way of California Giving context to the torrent since 2005.
"I love the relationship that anyone has with music: because there's something in us that is beyond the reach of words, something that eludes and defies our best attempts to spit it out. It's the best part of us, probably, the richest and strangest part..."
—Nick Hornby, Songbook
"Music has always been a matter of energy to me, a question of Fuel. Sentimental people call it Inspiration, but what they really mean is Fuel." —Hunter S. Thompson
Mp3s are for sampling purposes, kinda like when they give you the cheese cube at Costco, knowing that you'll often go home with having bought the whole 7 lb. spiced Brie log. They are left up for a limited time. If you LIKE the music, go and support these artists, buy their schwag, go to their concerts, purchase their CDs/records and tell all your friends. Rock on.
Thanks to everyone who submitted a story about Africa, U2 –or even Bonalmost– for the contest to win the In The Name of Love CD of U2 covers by African musicians.
NEW CONTEST: Tristan Prettyman is a musician from the San Diego area with a lovely sunrise homespun voice, and an approachable acoustic sound that I dig.
#1 – Someone wins a vinyl 7″ — limited edition (3000), signed by E, featuring two tracks – both previously unreleased:
Name: Heather Browne
