The Yes lead guitarist demonstrates three of prog rock’s most indelible riffs:
Steve Shows You Howe
11 Dec 2012 Leave a comment
in Best of the Blog, General Posts Tags: i've seen all good people, long distance runaround, roundabout, steve howe, yes
25 Things You Didn’t Know About ‘Fairytale of New York’
08 Dec 2012 Leave a comment
in General Posts Tags: fairytale of new york, kirsty maccoll, the pogues
(Source: NME)
The very best Christmas song is, of course, also the only one to involve someone being called “an old slut on junk”. This December marks 25 years of ‘Fairytale of New York’, The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl’s glorious drunken hymn to broken dreams and bitterly cold recriminations. In the last quarter of a century it’s become rightfully regarded as a classic, and this year it will be re-released as a limited edition 7” vinyl which The Pogues are supporting with a one-off UK gig at London’s O2 Arena on 20th December. However, when it was first released in 1987 it didn’t even take the Christmas number one slot. Who kept them off the top? That and more in our behind-the-fairytale guide to the 25 things you should know:
Fleetwood Mac to Launch World Tour in April
03 Dec 2012 Leave a comment
in General Posts Tags: fleetwood mac
(Reprinted from Rolling Stone)
By Andy Greene
December 3, 2012 5:10 PM ET
After months of reunion rumors, Fleetwood Mac announced Tuesday that they’ll return to the road next spring for an extensive tour that will take them all over the globe. The trek will kick off in Columbus, Ohio on April 4th; tickets go on sale December 14th.
“It’s the perfect time to go back out,” Stevie Nicks tells Rolling Stone. “2013 is going to be the year of Fleetwood Mac.”
As was the case with their 2010 tour, the band is hitting the road without a new album to support. The set list will be built around Fleetwood Mac’s large catalog of hits. “We always have to play ‘Dreams,’ ‘Rhiannon,’ ‘Don’t Stop,’ ‘Tusk,’ ‘Big Love,’ ‘Landslide’ and all our most famous songs,” says Lindsey Buckingham. “When you’ve gone through all your must-do’s, that’s 75% of your potential setlist. I think with the other 25%, there are areas of our catalog that are more under-explored. Maybe we’ll play more songs from Tusk. I’d also like to see an extended middle portion of the show that’s just me and Stevie. This is just me talking from the top of my head. For now, I have no particular vision of what this tour is going to be.”
The band begins rehearsals on February 15th, and at that point they’ll hash out exactly what songs they’re going to play. “We actually have two new Fleetwood Mac songs that I cut with Lindsey two weeks ago we might play,” says Nicks. “I had a really good time working with him for four days at his house. I got to hang out with his family and his kids, his grown up kids, and really connect with him again. We’re pretty proud of what we have done, and we’re looking at it through the eyes of wisdom now, instead of through the eyes of jealousy and resentment and anger.”
Only American dates are announced, but the group is planning on touring the whole world. “If everything goes will we’ll be in Europe doing festivals this summer,” says Nicks. “Then we’ll actually tour Europe, which is different than just doing festivals. Then we might do fifteen or so shows in Australia.”
Check in later this week for a detailed Q&A with Nicks and Buckingham where they discuss the upcoming tour, their failed attempt to record a new Fleetwood Mac album, the possibility of reforming their old duo Buckingham-Nicks and the many tensions that linger in their long relationship.
Here are Fleetwood Mac’s 2013 tour dates:
4/4 Columbus, OH – Nationwide Arena
4/6 Philadelphia, PA – Wells Fargo Center
4/8 New York, New York – Madison Square Garden
4/9 Washington, DC – Verizon Center
4/11 Louisville, KY – KFC Yum! Center
4/13 Chicago, IL – United Center 4/16 Toronto, ON – The Air Canada Centre
4/18 Boston, MA – TD Garden
4/20 Uncasville, CT – Mohegan Sun Arena
4/23 Ottawa, ON – Scotiabank Place 4/24 Newark, NJ – Prudential Center
4/26 Pittsburgh, PA – CONSOL Energy Center
4/28 St. Paul, MN – Xcel Center
4/30 Kansas City, MO – Sprint Center
5/1 Tulsa, OK – BOK Center
5/3 Little Rock, AK – Verizon Arena
5/12 Winnipeg, MB – MTS Centre
5/14 Saskatoon, SK – Credit Union Centre
5/15 Edmonton, AB – Rexall Place
5/17 Calgary, AB – Scotiabank Saddledome
5/19 Vancouver, BC – Rogers Arena
5/20 Tacoma, WA – Tacoma Dome
5/22 San Jose, CA – HP Pavilion st San Jose
5/25 Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Bowl
5/26 Las Vegas, NV – MGM Grand Arena
5/28 Anaheim, CA – Honda Center
5/30 Phoenix, AZ – US Airways Center
6/1 Denver, CO – Pepsi Center
6/4 Dallas, TX – American Airlines Center
6/5 Houston, TX – Toyota Center
6/7 Tampa, FL – Tampa Bay Times Forum
6/8 Fort Lauderdale, FL – BB&T Center
6/10 Atlanta, GA – Philips Arena
6/12 Detroit, MI – Joe Louis Arena
Dumb Ways to Die
03 Dec 2012 Leave a comment
in General Posts, On a Lighter Note Tags: cool things to find, dumb ways to die
(Reprinted from The Atlantic)
Cute, candy-colored cartoon characters sing a happy tune, waving their tiny arms to the soothing beat … until irresponsible behavior results in their grotesque decapitation, self-immolation, and other explosively awful “dumb ways to die.” The short video is hilarious and it’s winning the Internet, with more than 28 million views on YouTube since it went live earlier this month.
The project is a perfect case study of what elements can make for a viral hit: cuteness (obviously), shocking violence (sigh), a certain Internet-y strand of absurd comedy, and — best of all — GIF-ability. According to Creativepool, the agency behind the spot, Melbourne’s McCann, instructed the animator, Julian Frost, to “make it more violent” and “add a piranha to [a character’s] private parts.” On his site, Frost simply remarks “Well the Internet likes dead things waaay more than I expected.” The spot was written by McCann’s John Mescall and the music is by Tangerine Kitty and its available on iTunes and in a karaoke version as well (clever).
The true mark of a viral hit is not just a million views, but a million spinoffs. Dumb Ways to Die is on its way, with a science-oriented copycat video, Cool Things to Find, featuring NASA’s Curiosity rover in its search for neat (and weird) stuff on Mars. The YouTube video, produced by a Seattle-based company called Cinesaurus, already has more than 70,000 views — since yesterday.
Led Zeppelin to Visit ‘Letterman’
01 Dec 2012 Leave a comment
in General Posts Tags: Led Zeppelin
(Reprinted from Rolling Stone)
No word whether rockers will perform on December 3rd show
John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin will visit the Late Show With David Letterman when the show broadcasts from Washington D.C. on December 3rd. The rockers, along with Letterman, are among the recipients of this year’s Kennedy Center Honors, which take place December 2nd. There’s no word on if the band will play on the show.
Juicy Tales From Heart’s Ann and Nancy Wilson
29 Nov 2012 Leave a comment
in General Posts Tags: ann wilson, heart, nancy wilson
(Reprinted from Rolling Stone)
Sisters publishing memoir ‘Kicking and Dreaming: A Story of Heart, Soul and Rock & Roll’
By Jessica Hopper
After four decades and 30 million albums sold, Ann and Nancy Wilson have decided to tell their story. This week Kicking & Dreaming: A Story of Heart, Soul and Rock & Roll (HarperCollins) hits shelves. With co-author Charles Cross (Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain), the Wilson sisters dish on Heart’s formative years, the inspirations behind their hits and their personal travails, along with some sordid rock gossip. Here are some of the more notable – and curious – stories revealed:
During Ann’s junior year in high school, their parents became aware that their daughters were regularly smoking pot. Having hit a bit of a counterculture experimental phase, one night after dinner, the Wilson parents suggested that the whole family toke together. Ann recalls it being rather embarrassing: “It wasn’t the best pot, but I wasn’t about to share my connection with my parents.”
“Crazy On You” was inspired by Ann’s first serious romance, with Michael Fischer, who would soon become Heart’s iron-fisted manager. The pair shacked up on a hippie commune in Canada. Wilson writes that while the lyrics “were straight out of the scenes of wild sexuality that went on in the cottage,” they were also about her feminist awakening and finding empowerment through her music.
During Heart’s earliest incarnation they were primarily a cover band, cementing their reputation in the Vancouver club scene with their set of Led Zeppelin songs. In March 1975, Heart was onstage performing “Stairway to Heaven” when Zeppelin themselves walked in, fresh from their show at the Pacific Coliseum. Wilson writes that the foursome seemed oblivious, disappearing into the club’s inner-sactum, where Jimmy Page was tended to by “his doctor” before promptly passing out.
When Nancy was on location with her then-husband (and former Rolling Stone scribe) Cameron Crowe while he was directing the 2001 bomb Vanilla Sky, the film’s star, Tom Cruise, gave the couple a personally guided tour of Scientology’s Celebrity Centre.
The early radio success of “Magic Man” was paid for with hookers and cocaine. The band’s publicist would ferry the Wilson sisters to radio appearances where they would meet the DJ, do a station ID and then be told to go wait outside. According to Nancy, “When we were out of the way, he’d pass the DJ a gram of cocaine or the number of a hooker he’d lined up and say ‘She’s yours, on Heart.’ It wasn’t until years later that the Wilson sisters found out about the shady dealings that had gone on behind their backs.
The photo negative for a topless picture of Ann Wilson, taken surreptitiously by Annie Leibovitz, is rotting in a safe deposit box. When a shoot with the photographer for the band’s Bebe Le Strange-era Rolling Stone cover went south, the band demanded the famed rock photographer destroy her copy; when she refused, Heart took her to court. The judge ordered the negative to be kept in a safe deposit box that could only be opened with two keys – one belonging to Wilson and the other to Leibovitz – insuring it would never see the light of day.
In the fall of 1982, Heart had a brush with the legendary ego of John Cougar Mellencamp. The young singer was opening the band’s tour behind Private Audition, Heart’s first album that wasn’t an immediate million-seller, when Mellencamp’s “Jack and Diane” went to number one. He came to the band with a proposition: “Seeing as your album is a turkey and mine is a hit, care to swap places?” The Wilson sisters declined, reminding him that the tour had sold out before he’d even been announced as the opening act.
While Heart was on tour with Van Halen, Alex and Eddie, in their own fumbling, wasted way, suggested a four-way-of-sorts between them. The sisters declined, but later that night, when Nancy learned that Eddie didn’t own an acoustic guitar she was incredulous, and she gave him one of her own before sending him on his way. The next morning, after a night-long binge, he called her hotel room and serenaded her over the phone.
Every Moment Has A Song 