Identity said:

New video for "Take a Ride".


YTube

This is nice too.

Steve Hackett new album announcement

Bob Mehr's Memphis Music Beat: Peter Guralnick talks Elvis, Sam Phillips bio on deck

http://www.commercialappe...k_25917094

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By Joseph Hudak | December 30, 2014

When influential bluegrass fiddler Art Stamper died in 2005 at 71, the style of playing he popularized with the Stanley Brothers in the Fifties was already well established. The old-time mountain sounds of his native Kentucky, however, lost one of its greatest champions and historians. Fortunately, there is another: Art's sibling Charlie Stamper. This month, the elder Stamper brother released his first-ever album at the age of 84, Glory to the Meeting House.

Related

A collection of songs and snippets of conversation, the project, released on the small label June Appal Records, was co-produced by J.D. Wilkes, leader of Southern-gothic punk band the Legendary Shack Shakers. Wilkes, a fellow Kentuckian, discovered Stamper while researching his book Barn Dances and Jamborees Across Kentucky and set out to capture his spry, often blazing, fiddling. Watch a video of Stamper, with Wilkes on banjo, playing the traditional "Willow Creek" above.

"Charlie Stamper is the kind of treasure that was always hiding in plain sight," Wilkes tells Rolling Stone Country. "Although his brother is in the Bluegrass Hall of Fame, Charlie has always been content to play at the local jamboree down the road and give lessons to the neighborhood kids."

In addition to Stamper's fiddle skills, Glory to the Meeting House also showcases his ability with the "thrum-bow," a rudimentary instrument made of a hickory bow and wire. Played with one's mouth, the sound produced recalls a hillbilly version of Joe Perry's "Sweet Emotion" talk box.

Wilkes says Stamper viewed making a record as something for his "bucket list," a way to honor his brother Art, Stamper patriarch Hiram, also a musician, and the "family tradition." "He's too humble to assert himself into the trending 'old time' scene," Wilkes says. "Only now has he allowed June Appal Records and me to spread word of his secret royalty."

Glory to the Meeting House, like the "Willow Creek" video, was recorded last January at Stamper's home in Cadiz, Kentucky.

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New upcoming CD/MP3 Releases

[img:$uid]http://i.imgur.com/DYwZ6eT.jpg?1[/img:$uid]


Rita Ora: "2015 Will Be the Year That Changes Everything"
01/02/15
Link



She's been a star for quite a while in the U.K., but 2014 was the year that the U.S. really discovered Rita Ora, thanks to her collaboration with Iggy Azalea on "Black Widow." Now, the Albanian-born British singer is ready to take 2015 by storm.

"2015 for me is honestly gonna be the year that changes everything for my life, personally and professionally and creatively," she tells ABC News Radio, adding, "It's the first time I'm releasing an album worldwide."

Indeed, her first album, Ora, featuring the single "How We Do (Party)," was not released globally. That'll change with her second album, due early this year, which she considers to be her "real" debut.

Rita is also launching an acting career: she has a small part in the much-anticipated movie 50 Shades of Grey, playing Christian Grey's sister Mia.

Donna Douglas, the Beverly Hillbillies star who played Elly May Clampett, dies at 81

By MailOnline Reporter

Published: 14:03 EST, 2 January 2015 | Updated: 18:05 EST, 2 January 2015

The Beverly Hillbillies star Donna Douglas has died at 81.

The actress, who played buxom toyboy Elly May Clampett on the beloved 1960s TV series, passed away Thursday at her home in Louisiana, her granddaughter confirmed to TMZ.

She was surrounded by her friends and family. The cause of death was pancreatic cancer.

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TV favourite: The Beverly Hillbillies star Donna Douglas has died aged 81. She is pictured in 2004 at the TV Land Awards at the Hollywood Palladium

Donna starred in The Beverly Hillbillies for all nine seasons and even returned for the 1981 reunion TV movie.

The series, which ran from 1962 to 1971, also starred the late Buddy Ebsen and Irene Ryan as well as Max Baer Jr., who turns 77 on Sunday.

The comedy centred around a poor family who, after discovering oil deposits on their land, become very rich.

They then buy a mansion in Beverly Hills, California and proceed to shake up the privileged society with their country ways.

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What a star: Donna, seen here in 2003, reportedly died of pancreatic cancer. She passed away surrounded by family and friends near her home town of Zachary, Louisiana

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Beauty: Donna, played Elly May Clampett in the 1960s TV show

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The Clampett clan: Donna as Elly May in The Beverly Hillbillies in 1965. She is pictured alongside Buddy Ebsen (left), Max Baer and Irene Ryan

Chosen from more than 500 other actresses, Donna said she felt at ease playing the role because, like her character, she grew up a poor Southern tomboy.

Her childhood in Pride, Louisiana, came in handy when she was asked during her audition to milk a goat.

'I had milked cows before,' she recalled in a 2009 interview with The Associated Press. 'I figured they were equipped the same, so I just went on over and did it.'

Donna also starred alongside Elvis Presley in Frankie and Johnny as well as several other classic TV series such as Mister Ed, The Twilight Zone, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Adam 12 and Route 66.

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Classic: The Beverly Hillbillies centred around a country family who suddenly struck it rich and moved to Beverly Hills in California. The show ran from 1962-1971

The actress married Roland Bourgeois at 17, and divorced just after having her son, Danny P. Bourgeois, whom she shielded from the media spotlight.

Donna's career began with beauty pageants - she was Miss Baton Rouge and Miss New Orleans - followed by a trip to New York to pursue a career in entertainment.

'That was the first time I had ever been on an airplane,' she said.

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Blonde bombshell: Donna once said that her upbringing as a poor southern tomboy helped her snag the role as Elly May

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Iconic: The beauty starred alongside Elvis Presley in Frankie And Johnny in 1966

While modeling didn't appeal to her - 'I didn't want to be that skinny' - television did. Donna was featured as the Letters Girl on The Perry Como Show in 1957 and as the Billboard Girl on The Steve Allen Show in 1959.

She was married to The Beverly Hillbillies director Robert Leeds from 1971 to 1980.

After acting, Donna worked in real estate and recorded country and gospel music albums and wrote a book for children that drew on biblical themes. She also traveled as an inspirational speaker.

In 2010 she sued CBS and toymaker Mattel over a Barbie doll that used Elly May's name and likeness. The suit was settled in 2011.

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Talent: The actress pictured with actress Pat Priest and musician Herb Alpert in the 1960s

Rod Stewart Sideman and Jazz Guitarist Jeff Golub Dead at 59

Jeff Golub died January 1st at the age of 59. The guitarist was best known for his work alongside Rod Stewart.

By Jason Newman | January 2, 2015

Jeff Golub, the longtime jazz, blues and rock guitarist who played on albums by Rod Stewart and Billy Squier alongside his own solo work, died on Thursday at the age of 59, according to Jazz Times.

While the exact cause of death remains unknown, Golub had experienced a series of medical setbacks in recent years, including a rare, incurable brain disorder known as Progressive Supranuclear Palsy.

In his long career, Golub recorded 11 solo albums and three as leader of jazz band Avenue Blue. But it was his work with Stewart — Golub toured and recorded as his lead guitarist from 1988 until 1995 — that earned him the most renown in jazz and rock circles.

Born in Copley, Ohio, in 1955, Golub began playing guitar at 12, absorbing a wide range of influences, including music from the Grand Ole Opry and the British Invasion. The blues became his true obsession, and the guitarist soaked in music by Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy and Eric Clapton, among many others.

After attending the Berklee College of Music, Golub moved to New York in 1980 and began working with Squier, recording seven albums with the arena rock star. He would go on to become an in-demand session player, working with numerous pop and jazz artists including Tina Turner, Peter Wolf, Vanessa Williams and Bill Evans.

Golub released his debut album Unspoken Words in 1988, the same year he would join Stewart's band as lead guitarist. He stayed with Stewart until 1995, but left to focus on his own career. Avenue Blue, the eponymous debut by Golub's group, was released in 1994 and earned Golub new acclaim in the smooth jazz market. Golub would record a steady stream of albums in subsequent years, including 2000's Dangerous Curves, 2003's Soul Sessions and 2007's Grand Central.

In 2011, Golub lost his eyesight after his optic nerve collapsed, though the musician maintained an optimistic outlook on his career and life. "Fortunately, I'm in one of the few professions where I can get by without my sight," Golub said on his website. "It's made me a better artist. It's opened up my ears, and I hear things more acutely now. It's put me more in touch with my feelings and with my public. My audience has been incredibly supportive."

One year later, Golub made headlines when he fell off a New York City subway track and was dragged by an oncoming train, only to escape with minor injuries. The musician used the incident as inspiration in naming his last album, 2013's Train Keeps a Rolling.

"To me, there's only two kinds of music: the kind that's from the heart and the kind that's not," Golub said. "Regardless of the style or genre, music is either real or it's not real. I like any kind of music that's from the heart, and that's the kind that I try to make."

A tribute concert featuring Koz, Christopher Cross, Chuck Loeb, Kirk Whalum and others will be held at New York's B.B. King's Blues Club & Grill on January 21st. The show will raise funds on behalf of Golub and his family.

Tango Great Leopoldo Federico Dies at 87

By Judy Cantor-Navas | January 02, 2015 10:41 AM EST

Leopoldo Federico, Mariano Mores, Horacio Salgan, and Fernando Suarez Paz on Aug. 24, 2006, at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Lita Stantic Producciones/MCT /Landov

Leopoldo Federico, the master Argentine bandoneón player who joined Rubén Blades on his Grammy-nominated album Tangos, has died at age 87. "He is a point of reference for tango argentino," Blades told Billboard before the release of the album of tango versions of the Panamanian salsa star's songs, for which he recorded with Federico and his orchestra in Buenos Aires. Tangoswon the 2014 Latin Grammy for best tango album. Blades called Federico a "gentleman who has played with the best, who has been there through a very important part of the development of tango," and whose presence on the recording gave "immediate credibility to what we were trying to do."

Considered one of the greatest tango musicians of all time, Federico performed with Astor Piazzolla in his twenties, and led his own 12-piece orchestra for more than fifty years. The son of a coal salesman, he described himself as a "grown-up boy" who started playing the bandoneón as a child, motivated by a tango-loving uncle. As a teenager he got his first professional gig playing in a cabaret band.

The esteemed Argentine musician and composer received numerous awards, including the honor of Distinguished Citizen of Buenos Aires. Late in his career, Federico collaborated with young tango musicians. In 2013, he was joined by a line-up of fellow tango stars at a tribute concert in Buenos Aires.

"I keep thinking about retiring, but it seems like destiny keeps pushing me [to play on]," Federico said in a 2010 interview.

Federico died in his native Buenos Aires on Dec. 28.

Black Messiah (4 and a half stars)

• Black Messiah
• D’Angelo and the Vanguard
• RCA

Fourteen years after his last album, the R&B star returns with a warm, expansive masterpiece

BY Rob Sheffield | December 17, 2014

Here's to messiahs worth waiting for. D'Angelo has kept the world fiending 14 years for the follow-up to his Crisco-thick R&B classic, Voodoo, but as the man himself purrs in "Sugah Daddy," "Can't snatch the meat out of the lioness' mouth/Sometimes you gotta just ease it out." Black Messiah shows how deep easy can go. D'Angelo and his band have built an avant-soul dream palace to get lost in, for 56 minutes of heaven.

All over Black Messiah, D'Angelo is a trouble man exorcising his trouble. In "Back to the Future (Part I)," he even jokes about his long layoff: "If you're wondering about the shape I'm in/I hope it ain't my abdomen." There's a hint of political rage in "The Charade" ("All we wanted was a chance to talk/'Stead, we only got outlined in chalk") and "1000 Deaths," showing off the harsh side of D's ever-amazing guitar.

"Another Life" is an album-closing deep-soul epic in the spirit of Prince's "Adore" or Al Green's "Beware," building on Questlove's drums, some Thom Bell-style sitar from D'Angelo himself and the man's warmest falsetto, stretching out minute after minute – because who would want this groove to stop? It will take at least 14 years to absorb all the pleasures in Black Messiah.

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Kelly Clarkson Drops More New Album Hints, Offers "Dr. Dre" as Clue

By Alex M. Smith
Jan 03, 2015 09:22 PM EST

Kelly Clarkson (Photo : Christopher Polk/Getty Images)

Ever since Kelly Clarkson hinted that her new album might have a little country flair to it, her fans have been worried about some sort of reverse Swift genre switch. But Clarkson took to Twitter on Saturday to calm down the supporters who had their pants in a bunch.

She also hinted at a duet… but with whom?

Clarkson could’ve been talking about a studio or live performance. But she partook in the short-lived TV show "Duets," during which she sang with relative unknowns such as Jordan Meredith and Jason Farol.

Besides that, she also alluded to a mysterious first single. Can you figure out her cryptic tweet, which pays homage to the hip-hop classic 2001?

Clarkson made waves earlier this week when she announced that her Na... influence.

"There's all different kinds of genres on there," Clarkson said. "I'm obviously affected by the community I live in. So there's a little bit of everything."

Clarkson has done recent live duets with Trisha Yearwood ("Silent Night," "Prizefighter"), Reba McEntire ("Silent Night," "Because of You") and Martina McBride ("In the Basement"), so perhaps one of Nashville’s female stars will make an appearance on the disc.

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A Look Back on Latinos in Film in 2014

Posted by admin on January 3rd, 2015 11:42 PM

By Luis Reyes

Although the the Media, Diversity, and Social Change Initiative report, which was released on August 2014 showed that Latinos made up only 4.9% of movie characters across 100 of 2013’s top-grossing films, we question if there is any indication of an upswing in 2014?

Oscar Issacs as the lead character of Abe Morales in A Most Violet Year

In 2014 filmgoers were treated to the presence of Latinos in many theatrical feature film roles, a few in leading roles such as: Oscar Issacs who starred as Abe Morales, a New York businessman in A Most Violent Year (which has already received accolades and three National Board of Review selections, one for Issacs for Best Actor). Gael Garcia Bernal starred in Jon Stewart’s directorial debut Rosewater as an imprisoned Iranian-Canadian journalist.

Other starring roles went to Michael Pena who had a banner year first in the title role in Cesar Chavez. He then starred alongside Ed Harris and Eva Longoria in Frontera, a story about an undocumented worker and a rancher (Harris) who forged an unusual connection. In October her starred as a World War II soldier opposite Brad Pitt in Fury. Fast becoming one of the most sought after actors in Hollywood, in 2015 Pena has two high profile films releasing, The Vatican Tapes in May of 2015 and The Ant Man in July of next year in which he stars.

However, mostly is was in supporting roles that Latinos had the most impact in some of the most memorable and significant performances in 2014 in major motion pictures. Here is a sampling:

• John Wick starring Keanu Reeves featured John Leguizamo as a character named Arellano.
• Kill The Messenger featured Yul Vasquez, Paz Vega and Andy Garcia (who also co-starred in the hit comedy, Let’s Be Cops.)
• Addicted co-starred Mexican heartthrob William Levy.
• Rosario Dawson as the journalist who interviews Chris Rock’s character in the feature Top Five.
• The Drop featured John Ortiz as a Puerto Rican NYPD detective and he is also featured in Michael Mann’s Blackhat which is set to release on January 16, 2015.
• The horror hit Annabelle co-starred Tony Amendola as the priest.
• The tremendous worldwide Box office hit, Guardians of the Galaxy starred Zoe Saldana and Benicio Del Toro.
• Pepe Serna in the featured role in Cake which stars Jennifer Aniston and but also starred in the sleeper film festival award winner Man From Reno
• Kate del Castillo was the other woman in the thriller No Good Deed.
• Enrique Castillo as the cancer ridden patriarch in Fanny Veliz’s indie film Homebound about a young man forced to return to his home town in El Campo, TX to care for his ill father.
• Jorge Gutierrez’s Book Of Life the animated film from Dreamworks had a dream cast of the voice talents of Diego Luna, Zoe Saldana, Kate del Castillo, Danny Trejo, Anna de la Reguera, Hector Elizondo and Placido Domingo among many others.

The final word on whether there were enough roles for Latinos in film in 2014 to raise the statistics is yet to be confirmed, but it’s always good to spotlight the talent that did worked this year.

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D’Angelo & The Roots Deliver Deep Funk At Afropunk Festival [Full Live Audio]

https://soundcloud.com/af...-fest-2014

Dom La Nena

“Ela“ marks the solo debut from Dom La Nena, a Brazilian born cellist who has worked with such artists as Jane Birkin, Jeanne Moreau, Camille and Etienne Daho. Finding that she wasn’t comfortable recording her music in a traditional studio, Dom was invited by Piers Faccini to try working in his home studio. It proved to be a better environment for Dom, and liking what he heard, Piers ended up working on the songs with her. The resulting album has an exquisite, somewhat dark sound that surrounds multilayered cello with minimalist arrangements of guitar, piano and other instruments. Singing in both Spanish and Portuguese, Dom proves to be as talented a vocalist as she is a cellist. The following is an email interview with her.

Having performed as a cellist with other artists, had you always wanted to also do your own music? What made you decide that this was the time?

I always wanted to compose my own music, but for a very long time I was too scared to go ahead…it was close to impossible.

I started to write these songs when I had finished touring with Jane Birkin a few years ago. At that moment I had some free time for a few months, and just for fun, I decided to work on it… but initially Ii had no intention of becoming a singer or to make an album with my music. that desire came when I finished a few songs that I really liked, and then I decided to share them with some people around me, and then to record it.

Do you feel that your work with others has influenced your solo music music at all?

Of course, it’s always rewarding to play with different people!

Did you write the album as a whole, or are there musical ideas that date back to before you started really focusing on your own music?

All the songs of Ela came at the same time, during a very short period (less than 1 month).

How would you say that the material evolved from when you started work on the album to what we hear on the final release?

When I was in the writing process, I needed to record the songs immediately with their arrangements, otherwise there was no fun, it wouldn’t have been exciting otherwise. This was the process that I prefered. Of course I was at home with a very basic material so I could not make it all like I imagined. I basically had my cello, a little keyboard and a little acoustic guitar, so I had fun making strings arrangements .

The first time I went to Piers Faccini’s home studio, I recorded it all like I had done for the demos. then I started to add a few other elements with the instruments that Piers had in the studio, and then I gave him all the songs and told him he could try anything he’d like!

In some songs he changed a lot, in others he did not add anything, but for me there was something really important and that I think we succeeded to keep: the innocence and the freshness of the demos.

I’m curious as to what factors went into deciding what language is used on a particular track? To what extent might it be dictated by lyrical content vs sound/atmosphere it evokes?

I did not choose the languages… the melodies came often with some words, so sometimes they came in portuguese, sometimes in spanish. some sounds, some notes resonate with a particular word.

I didn’t think “i will write a song in spanish”…otherwise it wouldn’t have worked!

But I have to admit that on the first songs I wrote I was very shy to show it to people who where close to me, so I was very happy to write them in portuguese – this way they could not understand the lyrics, as I live in France!

Working with Piers Faccini on this album, what was the creative/collaborative process like? From what I’ve read, it seems like after you did the initial recording it was a long-distance collaboration?

Initially we were not really supposed to work together on the album. He just invited me to use his home studio since I was looking for options to record my songs. When I went there I worked for a few days and he listened to a few songs and liked them a lot. Of course, I wanted to ask to him to play and sing on it, but as I had no label and no concrete project, I was too shy to ask him. Thankfully, he suggested it himself that he should put some guitars, some backing vocals…

I stayed there for a week or so, working alone. I then gave the songs to him on a hard drive and told him to feel free to do whatever he wanted.

After he worked on the first 3 songs I just loved what he was doing… so we decided to make all the album together.

So, we spent very little time together in the studio. But we used to talk a lot about it, and we did work a lot together on the mixes and mastering.

Your bio mentions that you’d made previous attempts at going into a studio to work on your songs – could you elaborate on what those experiences/results had been like?

Yes, I tried to record them in a studio but I did not feel comfortable with the vibes of a regular studio. Since I had no label, I was using a friend’s studio, so I wasn’t paying for it. But eventually there was so much pressure that I felt totally unproductive.

It’s funny because I really like to do studio sessions for other people, and I never thought that I would not feel good making an album in that environment, but I stopped the process after 1 week of work and decided to make it all by myself at home or wherever else…

Was it always clear to you what type of arrangements/instrumentation you wanted, and the role of cello, within your solo music?

I had composed the songs with the arrangements (mainly cello arrangements). Sometimes, in songs like Ela or Dessa Vez, I started to record a bass line that I liked, then I added another cello track, then other, etc, and finally I got the song !

Piers is also on the Six Degrees label – did he get you involved with the label, or vice versa?

Yes, Piers introduced me to Six Degrees as he was already working with them.

Have you been performing this material live? If so, do you perform with other musicians? What is the instrumentation like? Would you say there are any major differences in the way the music comes across compared to the recording?

Yes, i’ve been playing it on stage and for the moment i’m playing alone. I use a loop station on the cello, and have a little toy-keybord, some little percussions, a ukulele…

Of course the arrangements are not very close to the album, but I like to be alone on stage!

Do you see your solo career as the focus now, or do you plan on continuing on also touring as cellist for other artists?

My focus now is my solo career, but I like a lot to play with other artists, so I have some parallel projects…like my duo called “Birds on a Wire” with Rosemary Standley, the singer of the band Moriarty. We play cello-voice covers, and we will also be touring during 2013-2014.

I’ve been also playing my songs with Piers Faccini, and his songs too!

For more info on Dom La Nena, check out her official website.

Listen: http://domlanenamusic.ban.../album/ela

Tammy Wynette and George Jones - The Possum with Little Richard during the 1974 BMI Country Awards in Nashville.

Little Jimmy Dickens, beloved 'Opry' star, dies at 94

Peter Cooper For The Tennessean - January 3, 2015

The Grand Ole Opry member Little Jimmy Dickens, center, is showing touring Japanese journalists Arimoto, left, and Tsuchiya how he picks gold out of a guitar Nov. 24, 1951. The two journalists were members of a group that was checking out the Middle Tennessee scene for a week.

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Country Music Hall of Famer Jimmy Dickens, the Grand Ole Opry's most beloved and diminutive ambassador, died Friday at a Nashville area hospital. He was 94.

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Mr. Dickens starred for decades on the "Opry," where he was a vital part of the scene both onstage and backstage. His dressing room was an essential stop for performers on the show, and it was there that he held court for a variety of artists, some of whom came to the Opry more than a half century after Mr. Dickens' 1948 debut.

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He remained a vital performer throughout his life, last playing the "Opry" on Dec. 20, a day after his 94th birthday and five days before he would be admitted to the hospital after suffering a stroke on Christmas Day. He died of cardiac arrest on Friday.

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When the spotlight shone on him, Mr. Dickens would make fun of his size ("I'm Little Jimmy Dickens, or Willie Nelson after taxes"), his rhinestone-studded outfits ("There goes Mighty Mouse in his pajamas") and his old-timer status (He would often introduce his "latest hit," from 1965).

"The Grand Ole Opry did not have a better friend than Little Jimmy Dickens," Opry vice president and general manager Pete Fisher said in a statement Friday. "He loved the audience and his Opry family, and all of us loved him back. He was a one-of-kind entertainer and a great soul whose spirit will live on for years to come."

In the final decades of his career, Mr. Dickens' kindness, affability and hospitality were his calling cards. Where others would say "goodnight," Mr. Dickens would shake hands and offer, "We appreciate you." But some of those who laughed with him and sang along to the songs he regularly performed on the "Opry" were unaware of what a potent, even groundbreaking performer he was in the 1950s.

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While the newly popular genre called rock 'n' roll threatened country's viability, Mr. Dickens toured with a Country Boys band that featured two electric guitars, a steel guitar and more volume than Elvis Presley or Chuck Berry could muster. The classic Country Boys bands of the 1950s included spectacular players such as steel guitarists Walter Haynes and Buddy Emmons, guitarists Jabbo Arrington, Howard Rhoton and Spider Wilson and bass man Bob Moore.

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"Their complex musical minds coupled with the fire of their teenaged youthful exuberance made for an instrumental combination which wouldn't be bettered," wrote Eddie Stubbs in the liner notes of Dickens' Bear Family boxed set. Rhoton and Wilson often engaged in twin leads that were precursors to the sounds used by The Allman Brothers Band in the 1970s. And though Mr. Dickens often downplayed his own rock 'n' roll efforts, records such as "(I Got) a Hole in My Pocket" and "Hey Ma! (Hide the Daughter)" were visceral and invigorating.

David J. Haskins on Bauhaus, His New Autobiography, and Sasha Grey

Eric Alper - Jan 4, 2015

Beginning with the creation of Bauhaus’s seminal debut hit ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’, David J. Haskins, when talking, offers a no-holds-barred account of his band’s rapid rise to fame and glory in the late 70s, their sudden dissolution in the 80s, and their subsequent (and often strained) reunions.

In his new autobiography, Who Killed Mister Moonlight, he explores his work as a solo performer, and with acclaimed trio Love And Rockets—culminating in the devastating fire that ripped through the sessions for their 1996 album Sweet F.A. He also delves deep into his exploration of the occult, drawing together a diverse cast of supporting characters, including William S. Burroughs, Alan Moore, Genesis P. Orridge, and Rick Rubin.

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J was a founding member of the highly influential English post-punk band Bauhaus in 1978, playing bass. David J wrote the lyrics of several Bauhaus songs (including their first single, “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”). He sang backing vocals on many songs, and sang lead on “Who Killed Mr. Moonlight?” Bauhaus first broke up in 1983, reforming periodically at later times.

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His first venture outside of Bauhaus was a collaborative single, “Armour” / “Nothing”, with artist and poet René Halkett, of the original Weimar Bauhaus school of art and design.

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He began writing music for a solo career while still in the band, and continued after the band’s break-up, releasing the dark Etiquette of Violence and Crocodile Tears and the Velvet Cosh, and played bass on two Jazz Butcher albums (A Scandal in Bohemia and Sex and Travel), both of which he also produced. J was also a part of the very short-lived band The Sinister Ducks, which included saxophonist Alex Green and comics writer Alan Moore. J also released an EP that was intended as a soundtrack to Moore’s graphic novel V for Vendetta. In 1996 he once again collaborated with Moore alongside musician Tim Perkins when the trio recorded two spoken word with music CD’s, The Grand Egyptian Theatre of Marvels and The Birth Caul.

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In 1985, J, his brother Kevin Haskins, and Daniel Ash, all former members of Bauhaus, formed Love and Rockets; J once again played bass guitar and also shared songwriting and vocal duties with guitarist Daniel Ash. His most notable lead vocal from this period was the minor hit “No New Tale to Tell”. J maintained his solo career during breaks from Love and Rockets, releasing Songs from Another Season and Urban Urbane after his band’s success with the single “So Alive”. He also released one of the first No. 1 hits from the newly created Modern Rock Tracks charts, with “I’ll Be Your Chauffeur.” J participated in a Bauhaus reunion in 1998. Love and Rockets broke up in 1999, after seven albums. Following what was billed as a one-off performance of Bauhaus at the 2005 Coachella concert festival, Bauhaus reformed for a successful tour of the Americas in late 2005 and Europe in early 2006 as well as a final album, Go Away White.

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J has a brand new album, An Eclipse of Ships, which brought him to Toronto, and the SiriusXM studios.

Read rest of interview here

Jazmine Sullivan Covers Whitney Houston’s “I Have Nothing”

Jazmine Sullivan puts her own touch on an iconic r&b track with a stunning cover of Whitney Houston‘s “I Have Nothing” for VIBE‘s V-Sessions series. The set comes ahead of the release of her forthcoming Reality Show LP – the long-awaited project which is slated to drop on January 13th via RCA Records. Providing yet another clinic in staggering vocal technique – this one picking up where her performance for NPR Music left off – Jazmine Sullivan absolutely nails this cover of the song. Check the footage below to watch the full performance. Pre-order the Reality Show LP via iTunes. Stay tuned for more from Jazmine Sullivan.

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By Jon Blistein | January 6, 2015

Sony reintroduced their classic Walkman as a high-resolution audio device, the NW-ZX2 Walkman, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, Wondering Sound reports. The new device is slated to hit shelves in the spring and will retail for a whopping $1,119.99.

Arriving over 35 years after the initial Walkman — which brought listeners the finest in portable casset...technology — Sony says their new device "can reproduce master quality recordings just as the artists originally intended." The NW-ZX2 reportedly utilizes a special digital amplifier, which can cut down distortion and noise for a cleaner sound; while it also boasts so-called DSEE HX technology, which bumps up the sound quality of streaming sources that are not high-res.

The NW-ZX2 features 128GB of memory — and can be expanded to 256GB — and a battery that's expected to last up to 60 hours. It's also Bluetooth and Wi-Fi compatible, so it can wirelessly broadcast to various devices, plus a number of new Sony speakers and headphones that also promise high audio quality (Sony also plans to release "the first car audio head unit that is compatible with high-resolution audio formats" this summer). As Gizmodo points out, however, the NW-ZX2 touch screen runs on a version of the Android operating system that's already two years old.

Sony enters an increasingly crowded market for high-end listening devices, as those craving high-res audio can pre-order Neil Young's PonoPlayer for $399 (the device is expected to ship in February). Young officially introduced Pono last year after spending several years developing and trademarking his high-definition alternative to MP3's. The rocker even launched a successful, star-studded Kickstarter campaign that raised over $6 million for the project.

During a chat with Rolling Stone, Young said his primary hope for Pono wasn't that it would sell the most units, but that it would help reintroduce listeners to high-quality audio. "Success is more people finding out about good-sounding music and music choice," Young said. "Whether it's Pono or some other company that decides to do the same thing and beats us because they've got millions and millions of dollars to work with — but we're first."

Steve Knopper | November 5, 2014

Trying to draw in audiophiles with money to spend on costly sound systems, Tidal launched last week as the first U.S. streaming service to offer CD-quality music — other than month-old Deezer Elite, which requires a Sonos hookup to get the high-quality songs. Tidal's hi-fi files are "lossless," which means they aren't as compressed as those offered by rivals Spotify, Beats Music or YouTube.

Rel ated

"With MP3, which is the dominant format for streaming, somehow people have accepted that as OK," says Andy Chen, the Norwegian company's chief executive. "We're saying, 'Maybe that's not OK.' Shouldn't it be the same level it used to be? Why should we accept less?"

The catch is Tidal costs $20 a month, twice as much as most premium streaming services, and its desktop hi-fi function is available, at the moment, only via Google Chrome. Also, because Tidal's FLAC files stream at 1,411 kbps, as opposed to Spotify Premium's 320 kbps, they can slow down an Internet connection and make for a more difficult user experience.

It's unclear whether Tidal, Deezer Elite and others will generate enough customers to make for a cost-effective business model. "A few guys doing it can support it," says David Chesky, co-founder of HDtracks, a long-running download service that specializes in high-end audio. "But if you're giant companies, I don't think so." Tidal's 25 million-song catalog is comparable to Spotify or Beats and contains a few exclusive tracks, such as Bruce Springsteen's "We Take Care of Our Own," that are unavailable via Spotify.

Given Tidal, Deezer Elite and download services such as HDtracks and Neil Young's yet-to-launch PonoMusic store, audiophiles are pleased the pendulum is shifting back to sound quality after years of MP3s and earbuds. "I'm cautiously optimistic that what they're doing is going to be an improvement," says Andy Mendelson, owner of Georgetown Masters, a Nashville studio that has worked on recordings by the Rolling Stones, the White Stripes and others. "It couldn't be a 'de-provement' over what exists in sound quality right now."

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Gugu Mbatha-Raw to Play Matthew McConaughey’s Wife in Gary Ross’ ‘Free State of Jones’ (Exclusive)

Movies | By Jeff Sneider on January 6, 2015

Scott Stuber and Jon Kilik ae producing the Civil War tale for Robert Simonds’ STX Entertainment

Hot off a pair of acclaimed performances in “Beyond the Lights” and “Belle,” Gugu Mbatha-Raw will star opposite Matthew McConaughey in Gary Ross’ Civil War movie “Free State of Jones,” TheWrap has learned.

Robert Simonds’ STX Entertainment is producing the $65 million movie and co-financing with foreign sales company IM Global. STX will handle domestic distribution, while IM Global will handle foreign rights. CAA brokered the domestic deal.

Scott Stuber and Jon Kilik are producing with Ross, for whom the project has been a longtime passion project.

Based on a true story, “Free State of Jones” will star McConaughey as Newton Knight and Mbatha-Raw as Rachel, a slave whose relationship with Knight played a central part in his life and in his armed rebellion against the Confederacy during the Civil War. The two enjoyed a common-law marriage after the war.

Mbatha-Raw is poised for stardom on the heels of back-to-back critical hits “Belle” and “Beyond the Lights,” both of which were directed by women. The British actress will soon be seen in the Wachowski’s sci-fi movie “Jupiter Ascending” and the Keanu Reeves courtroom drama “The Whole Truth,” and she’s currently filming Sony’s Untitled NFL Concussion Drama with Will Smith.

Mbatha-Raw is represented by CAA, Curtis Brown Group and Authentic Talent and Literary Management.

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Australian Model Ruby Rose to Join ‘Orange Is the New Black’

TV | By Alicia Banks on January 6, 2015 @ 2:58 pm

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SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - APRIL 09: Ruby Rose arrives for the Suboo show at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia 2014 at Carriageworks on April 9, 2014 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Caroline McCredie/Getty Images)

The DJ and LGBT activist will join the ladies of Litchfield Penitentiary on Season 3 of the Netflix series

“Orange Is the New Black” characters Piper Chapman and Alex Vause may fight over something new on Season 3.

Australian DJ and model Ruby Rose broke the news on her off...ebook page that she’ll be joining the cast of the hit Netflix series slated to air this summer.

“Grab yourself a copy of U.S. ELLE MAGAZINE and read about my new role on a small unheard of series called Orange Is The New Black.. ( insert sarcasm ) Haha, I am very excited and honored to be named one of the Magazines fresh faces on TV to watch in 2015,” she wrote.

Netflix also told TheWrap that Rose will portray Stella Carlin, a sarcastic inmate at Litchfield Federal Correctional Institution. Her looks catch the attention of inmates, including bickering lovers Piper (Tayler Schilling) and Alex (Laura Prepon).

Also read: ‘Orange Is the New Black’ Cast Join #MillionMarchNYC

Outside of her future role, Rose is a recording artist and appeared in Christina Ricci‘s 2013 film “Around the Block” about an Aboriginal boy torn between love and his family.

Last year, Fox’s “Fringe” actress Blair Brown and Mary Steenburgen, signed on for Season 3. Pablo Schreiber, who played corrections officer George Mendez aka “Pornstache,” won’t be returning. He’s signed on for HBO’s new comedy “The Brink,” TheWrap previously reported.

Radius Entertainment represents Rose.

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Gladys Knight to Play Psychic on ‘Hot in Cleveland’ (Exclusive)

TV | By Jethro Nededog on January 6, 2015 @ 1:27 pm Follow @therealjethro

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Derek Blanks

The legendary soul singer will guest star on an upcoming episode of the TV Land comedy

Gladys Knight will be talking to dead people on TV Land’s “Hot in Cleveland.”

The Grammy-winning soul legend will play a psychic named Miss Shonda on an episode titled “Scandalous,” TheWrap has learned.

Miss Shonda is an astrologer who, along with Elka (Betty White), is in a love triangle with the Mayor of Cleveland. When the mayor dies, Elka discovers their relationship and interrogates Miss Shonda on her whereabouts.

Knight is best known for her singing career as the front woman for Gladys Knight & The Pips in the 1960s and 1970s. But, she also has quite the acting resume.

She starred on the upcoming Lifetime movie “Seasons of Love” with Taraji P. Henson. They reunite for an upcoming episode of Fox’s “Empire,” as well. She has also played recurring roles on syndicated White House drama “The First Family,” The WB’s “Jamie Foxx Show” and Fox’s “Living Single.”

She is set to do a live streaming show with country music star Martina McBride in Nashville on Wednesday, Jan. 14 on Skyville.

“Hot in Cleveland,” which celebrated its 100th episode in August, will come to a close after the currently-airing sixth season.

CAA represents Knight.

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Bess Myerson, First Jewish Miss America, Dead at 90

Culture | By Tim Kenneally on January 5, 2015

Pioneering beauty queen later found herself mired in scandal

Bess Myerson, who became the first and, to date, only Jewish Miss America in 1945 before becoming a television personality and entering politics, died Dec. 14 in Santa Monica, the New York Times reported Monday. Myerson was 90.

Born in 1924 in The Bronx, Myerson was crowned Miss America in 1945, the same year she graduated from Hunter College with a degree in music. Myerson used the scholarship money from her Miss America win to finance graduate studies at the Juilliard School and Columbia University.

After her tenure as Miss America, Myerson embarked on a career in television, serving as a panelist on the game show “The Name’s the Same” and enjoying a nine-year run as a panelist on “I’ve Got a Secret,” as well as serving as a pitchwoman for various products.

Myerson later entered public service and politics, serving as a consumer affairs commissioner in New York. She also chaired Ed Koch’s mayoral campaign in New York. Myerson herself ran for the Democratic nomination for U.S. senate in 1980, losing out to congresswoman Elizabeth Holtzman.

The former beauty queen became mired in scandal while serving as Koch’s Department of Cultural Affairs in 1983. Myerson had become romantically linked to married sewer contractor Carl Andrew Capasso, and it was shortly discovered that Myerson had been socializing with the judge hearing Capasso’s divorce and had hired the judge’s daughter. Myerson was compelled to resign by the scandal, which came to be referred to as the “Bess Mess.”

Myerson was married twice. She wed first husband, U.S. Navy captain Allan Wayne — with whom she had a daughter Barbara — in 1946. The couple divorced in 1958, and she married Arnold Grant in 1962.

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Francesca Hilton, Zsa Zsa Gabor’s Daughter, Dead at 67

Culture | By Travis Reilly on January 6, 2015

Getty Images

The only child of actress Zsa Zsa and Hilton hotelier Conrad Hilton suffered an apparent stroke on Monday

Constance Francesca Gabor Hilton, only daughter of Zsa Zsa Gabor and Hilton Hotel founder Conrad Hilton, died Monday in Los Angeles. She was 67.

Hilton suffered an apparent stroke and heart attack on Monday evening while she was with her fiance Michael Natsis, according to a statement obtained by TheWrap. Natsis and arriving paramedics performed CPR on her, but she was pronounced dead after being rushed to Cedars-Sinai hospital.

“As Francesca’s publicist and one of her best friends I am shocked. We were on the phone minutes before she died. We were discussing her book she was writing and a possible deal. She had to go to the restroom. She never made it out. I am so sad about my friend for 35 years who procured Zsa Zsa Gabor her mother as my client during the Beverly Hills cop slapping incident that infamously jailed Zsa Zsa for three days,” said spokesperson Edward Lozzi.

Hilton is survived by her 97-year-old mother, Zsa Zsa, a Hungarian-born actress who starred on various different TV shows and in popular films including “Moulin Rouge” in 1952.

Her father died in 1979, leaving her just a small percentage of his hotel fortune.

During the 1980s, Hilton worked as both a model and an actress, and notably dated actor Peter Sellers. She had a small part in the 1971 film “A Safe Place” with Jack Nicholson, and later regularly performed at the Comedy Store on Sunset Boulevard, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Review: Marvel’s Agent Carter is snazzy, retro, and super-cool

Hayley Atwell shines as one of the Marvel universe’s unsung heroes.

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Marvel's Agent Carter

Anyone who questions the necessity of Agent Carter should know that in the show’s first episode, there’s a scene where Hayley Atwell—playing Strategic Scientific Reserve agent Peggy Carter—dons a blond wig and a glamorous gown, struts through a club playing hot jazz, plants a knockout kiss on a sharp-dressed gangster named Spider Raymond (played by The Wire’s Andre Royo), then uses a special tricked-out wristwatch to crack Spider’s safe and retrieve a secret formula. Judging by its first two episodes, this is what Agent Carter is going to be: retro-cool pulp thrills in fabulous outfits. Think The Rocketeer or Raiders Of The Lost Ark, but with a dame instead of a dude.

It’s easy to be skeptical about the trends in movies and television toward superheroes and “universes,” where everything is ultimately a commercial for something else—something sold separately. But thus far, Marvel Studios has effectively counterbalanced its mercenary side with genuine creative enthusiasm. There’s only so much that even the likes of Joss Whedon, Shane Black, and James Gunn can do with the blockbuster form, which tends naturally toward the bloated and lumbering. Yet there’s been a real spark of personality and purpose to a lot of the Marvel movies, and even to the uneven-but-energetic spin-off TV series Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. And now there’s Agent Carter, which could be The Flash to S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Arrow: the brighter, snappier sister-show that finds its footing much more quickly than its sibling.

Agent Carter opens with the hero mired in melancholy, still reeling from what happened in the 2011 Marvel movie Captain America: The First Avenger. It’s 1946 now, Captain America is presumed dead, and Peggy’s S.S.R. peers and superiors don’t take her seriously, because they have no firsthand experience of what she did to help the U.S. win World War II. Treated as a glorified secretary by her boss Roger Dooley (Shea Whigham), and openly mocked by her cocky fellow agents Ray Krzeminski (Kyle Bornheimer) and Jack Thompson (Chad Michael Murray)—who are certain she slept her way into her job—Peggy only has one real ally at the S.S.R., agent Daniel Sousa (Enver Gjokaj). But even Sousa’s defenses of Peggy at staff meetings come off as vaguely condescending, and the S.S.R.’s ongoing investigation of Peggy’s old friend and colleague Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) threatens to make a mockery of everything that Peggy, Stark, and Captain America stood for.

Then Stark approaches Peggy in secret and asks for her help in clearing his name. The government thinks Stark is engaged in treasonous profiteering, selling some of his more dangerous inventions—what he calls his “bad babies”—to foreigners and criminals. In actuality, the tech has been stolen, and Stark wants Peggy to work with his resourceful butler Edwin Jarvis (James D’Arcy) to get these bad babies back, and to find out who took them in the first place. The first two episodes of Agent Carter—“Now Is Not The End” and “Bridge And Tunnel,” which ABC is airing back-to-back—send Peggy out on missions that involve her wearing disguises and trying to find Stark’s troublemakers before her S.S.R. cohorts do.

This is a classic Marvel comics premise: the hassled hero, who has to hide her derring-do. More importantly, it’s a great television premise. Agent Carter’s creators Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely give the show a shot of 1940s pizazz, with propulsive big-band music on the soundtrack and characters who pepper old-timey slang at each other. But really, Agent Carter feels most like a throwback to the 1980s. It’s in the spirit of The A-Team, Moonlighting, Magnum P.I., Hart To Hart, Scarecrow And Mrs. King, and Remington Steele. Peggy and Jarvis in particular have a classic TV relationship: one headstrong, one persnickety, and both extraordinarily handy in their own way.

Agent Carter isn’t always sure how best to handle its hero’s gender. To a large extent, the show is about what it was like to be a woman in America in the mid-to-late-1940s, when the men came home from war and a generation of women who’d enjoyed a lot more independence earlier in the decade had to fall back into their former place. So the show has to walk multiple fine lines with Peggy, making her a feminist hero who’s not too vulnerable, not too cocky, and not too sexy (while still keeping just enough of those traits in play so that viewers will want to spend time with her for an hour a week).

It helps that Marvel has Atwell, who bulls through Agent Carter’s more contrived “sticking it to the male chauvinists” scenes through the sheer force of her charisma. It helps too that Whigham, Bornheimer, and Murray are so good at playing sexist jerks, and that D’Arcy’s Jarvis is such a charming and witty partner to Peggy. (And Cooper’s so great as Stark that even though he’s only in about five minutes of the first episode, his personality lingers long after he’s gone.) Unlike too many foreign-born TV stars these days, Atwell and D’Arcy get to use their native accents, which goes a long way toward them being able to bring a lot of their own personal flavor to their roles. And unlike too many action-adventure heroes, Atwell’s Peggy Carter has a lot of layers: at once flippant (brushing off a request that she do the filing because she’s so good at it by quipping, “Better at what? The alphabet?”), strong-willed (telling Jarvis that one of Stark’s theories has manifested as a miniature bomb, “so your soufflé will have to wait”), and sensitive (showing some real emotion after the unexpected death of a good friend).

A lot of Agent Carter’s kick come from its setting, with its automats and Captain America Adventure Program radio shows. The series takes advantage of the period on the technical side, going all in with the shadowy lighting and softened color-tones. But its greatest asset is Atwell, who takes a character that Marvel Comics has never really done much with before and makes it her own. It’s a feat that matches the story of Peggy Carter herself: Here all along was this Marvel hero with so much potential, now finally getting to show what she can do.

Created by: Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely
Starring: Hayley Atwell, James D’Arcy, Enver Gjokaj, Shea Whigham
Debuts: Tuesday, January 6th at 8 p.m. Eastern on ABC
Format: Hour-long action-adventure drama
Two episodes watched for review
Reviews by Oliver Sava will appear weekly.

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Ella Henderson’s ‘Chapter One’: Listen To The Full Album Ahead Of Its US Release

Ella Henderson didn’t win The X Factor UK during her stint on the show in 2012 — heck, she only came in 6th place — but as we know, sometimes reality TV singing competitions don’t always get it right. The 18-year-old British singer was one of our picks for Pop’s Class Of 2014, and that’s because she broke out huge with her smash hit “Ghost” last year. The song, co-written and co-produced by Ryan Tedder, topped the chart in her home country for several weeks, and is now soaring here in the States. (“Ghost” is currently hovering just outside of the Top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100, at #43.)

Ella’s debut LP Chapter One finally gets a US release next week (on January 13), and as of today, you can stream the LP in full on iTunes. Don’t miss future hits like “Glow” and “Yours,” both of which have already been serviced as singles overseas, or the gorgeous gem of a track “Empire.” Give Chapter One a listen here and see the tracklist below.

Chapter One tracklist

1. Ghost
2. Empire
3. Glow
4. Yours
5. Mirror Man
6. Hard Work
7. Pieces
8. All Again
9. Give Your Heart Away
10. Rockets
11. Missed

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David Cassidy Wins Sony Lawsuit

David Cassidy has had a $150,964.84 windfall from a court case.

TMZ is reporting that Cassidy won the lawsuit against Sony over the use of his image on Partridge Family merchandise.

Cassidy filed the lawsuit in October 2011 saying that he hadn’t been paid for all the merchandise marketed by Sony for the TV show. According to the suit ‘For nearly 40 years, defendants have swindled Mr. Cassidy out of his rightful share of the profits from The Partridge Family, and when Mr. Cassidy has inquired as to the matter, have lied to him so as to continue to conceal their deception.

‘Mr. Cassidy has reason to believe, and does reasonably believe, that defendants have been perpetrating a scam’ and ‘will continue to go to any and all lengths necessary, no matter how despicable, to avoid upholding.’

Cassidy was looking for over one million dollars.

In July 2012, Cassidy was denied a jury trial in the case with a judge citing an arbitration clause in the actor’s original 1971 contract. That arbitrator finally ruled on the case, awarding Cassidy $157,964.84.

According to TMZ, Cassidy has asked the court to confirm the amount and requested that $57,943.06 be added in arbitration fees and $35,824.82 in interest.

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Ninón Sevilla Dies: Cuban 'Aventurera' Rumbera Actress Dead At 93 Following Cardiac Arrest

The legendary Cuban actress that gained famed during the Mexican film Golden Age, has died at the age of 93. YouTube

The Guardian Interviews St Vincent
January 2015
Link

Elvis at 80: The King still rules

By Todd Leopold, CNN

Updated 9:36 AM ET, Thu January 8, 2015

(CNN)In 1992, the U.S. Postal Service had a vote to determine which image of Elvis Pres...on a stamp: a rendering of the youthful, late '50s King or the beefier, early-'70s version.

The runaway victor was Young Elvis. It remains one of the most popular stamps of all time.

But these days, it seems like '70s Elvis -- also known as "Fat Elvis" -- was the ultimate winner, with common perceptions of the singer focused on the glittery, jumpsuited performer who became the template for a thousand Vegas impersonators: a self-parody.

That's a shame, because the music of Elvis Aron Presley -- who would have turned 80 on Thursday -- remains as raw, direct and immediate as ever.

iReport: Happy 80th, Elvis

"What's there is the warmth, the particularity of communication," says Peter Guralnick, whose two-volume Elvis biography -- "Last Train to Memphis" and "Careless Love" -- remains the definitive chronicle of the singer. "It has to do with that unique talent for communication Elvis had from the very beginning, and that people recognized long before they ever saw him or had an image of him. It was something in his voice that proclaimed it's different."

There's no question that early Elvis -- the pre-Army idol -- retains a primal, unclassifiable force. Songs such as "That's All Right, Mama," "Hound Dog" and "All Shook Up" don't fit into any formula; they still seem as fresh and electric as the day they were released.

But even the later, more overly produced material -- "Suspicious Minds," "Kentucky Rain," "Way Down" -- demonstrate an artist who, simply, connected. (And it wasn't like the early Elvis wasn't equally polished. "Hound Dog," that minute-fifty of headlong fury, took 31 takes -- 31 takes! -- before Elvis was satisfied.)

"I don't sound like nobody," he famously said, and it was true.

Part of the tragedy of Elvis is that he never got a chance to recover from his 1970s decline, in which he was hobbled by drug use and weight problems. It's easy to forget that he was just 42 when he died in 1977. He seemed a generation older.

Elvis' 80th isn't going unremarked, of course, and is being celebrated in 21st-century style. There's a new website, www.elvisthemusic.com, and Spotify has called on fans to nominate their favorite Elvis songs to create an "#Elvis80" playlist. Guralnick's books were recently released in an enhanced e-book format with multimedia additions.

There's no reason an 80-year-old Elvis couldn't have stayed sharp, ready to be produced by a T-Bone Burnett or Rick Rubin. Willie Nelson turned 80 last year and released two albums; Tony Bennett, who's 88, collaborated with Lady Gaga and is up for a Grammy.

Guralnick believes that, had Elvis lived, he would have returned to his first love: gospel.

"He was so passionate about gospel music," he says. "I think he would have found enormous satisfaction in exploring gospel music, both traditional and progressive."

We'll just have to make do with what we have: a rich body of work from a brilliant artist.

"What you want to be open to is art. The immediacy of art. And I think that's what remains in Elvis' music," says Guralnick.

That's one hell of a stamp.

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Today marks what would have been Elvis Presley's 80th birthday, and thousands of fans from around the world are gathering in Memphis, Tennessee, to attend special events that have been scheduled to commemorate the milestone at the Graceland estate and around the city.

One of the main highlights of the celebration took place this morning on the Graceland lawn, where a ceremony was held, declaring Thursday to be Elvis Presley Day in Memphis. With Priscilla Presley on hand for the celebration, a specially designed birthday cake was also cut.

Kevin Kern, director of public relations for Graceland and Elvis Presley Enterprises, shared some details about the festivities with ABC News.

"We've got a cake fit for a king, complete with eight tiers -- one for each decade," he revealed. "And it's an exciting day, with members of the Presley family in attendance."

Kern added that Presley's daughter, Lisa Marie, would join her mother for the ceremony, which also featured a group singalong of "Happy Birthday" to Elvis, who was born Jan. 8, 1935, and died in August 1977 at the age of 42.

Other events happening this week in Memphis in conjunction with the 80th birthday celebration include a number of musical performances, a screening of the Presley movies Jailhouse Rock and Viva Las Vegas, a Q&A event and fan-club parties. In addition, an auction offering a variety of rare Elvis memorabilia will be held tonight at Graceland, with one of the most exciting items up for bid being the first recording Presley ever made, an acetate dating back to 1953.

Graceland plans to continue Elvis' 80th birthday celebration throughout 2015,” Kern told ABC News. He added that later in the year, "we'll be launching two special exhibits…that highlight various periods of Elvis' life and milestones in his career."

Presley, of course, was the first true rock 'n' roll superstar, a charismatic heartthrob, dynamic performer and powerful singer who propelled the genre into the mainstream of pop music. Regarding Elvis' enduring popularity, Kern notes that "almost half of [Graceland's] visitors were born after Elvis Presley passed, [which] goes to show the impact he still has on popular culture today and music of today."

"There probably wouldn't be The Beatles without Elvis Presley," he said. "It was John Lennon who said, 'Before Elvis there was nothing.' They were tremendously influenced by Elvis Presley and his music."

Didn't know he was still around. HB Larry Storch is 92 today.

by Stephanie Dubick

With gentrification in Brooklyn rising higher than a Williamsburg condo, the idea that people flocking to New York’s most populous borough because they like Girls really pisses off old school Brooklyn-ites like whoa. Last week, the viral smackdown of Brooklyn transplant Catey Shaw and the video premiere of “Brooklyn Girls,” sent the internet into a temporary state of psychotic rage when scathing criticisms against Shaw’s upbeat, and perhaps stereotypical, portrait of Brooklyn — with its abundance of PBR, graffiti and rooftop parties — was considered by some media outlets as the death of Brooklyn. But unlike artists who buckle from online hatred and even death threats from trolls, Shaw exudes a surprisingly stark and wicked sense of humor in spite of it all. And for someone considered the most hated musician on the Internet, who’s also contributing to the gentrification issue or whatever, the 22-year-old Virginia Beach native is thinking less about the critics and more about her upcoming album, which is appropriately entitled, The Brooklyn EP. We spoke to her about what it feels like to be despised by a bunch of anonymous strangers, her music, and being a girl who lives in the borough of Brooklyn.

I was on your Twitter page the other day and your comment on being excited for making it 24hrs without someone telling you to kill yourself was troubling and hilarious. Have you received a lot of death threats online?
I mean, it’s a thing, but I feel like with any internet happening people jump right to that [online threats]. And I don’t take it super seriously. I’m lucky that I’m pretty emotionally stable because if I wasn’t, I think it would be a lot harder to deal with. Luckily, I can laugh at it and recognize how people are on the internet.

Did you imagine that “Brooklyn Girls” was going to receive as much attention as it has?
I was hoping it would receive attention, but obviously I hoped it would have been more positively received. But it was totally intended as a compliment to Brooklyn. And we know that Brooklyn is a hot-button topic right now, so we kind of expected there would be a little bit of reaction, but nothing on this scale.

How are you dealing with the negative attention?
Last week it was a little weird. I was a bit scared to talk about it [the criticisms] because I didn’t want to say the wrong thing and give people ammo. It was just a lot harder last week. And I was so busy that I didn’t really have time to process it until yesterday. I had my one big emotional spell and got it all out. Now I’m ready to hit the ground running again. But it is kind of a blessing in disguise because it gave me a recognizable name.

Why do you think people dislike the song so much?
I think that we’re living in a place where your whole Facebook feed is a deep think piece about everything you could possibly think of. It’s great that this conversation is happening, but there’s clearly people that could talk about this for a long time but just didn’t have the correct outlet to vent. I think New York is a cool place, and I even do it sometimes, too, where I’ll go back to Virginia and I’m just like, ‘Nothing is cooler than New York or Brooklyn.’ We just get this New York-ery attitude about us.

I think a lot of the criticisms stem from the fact that the song could further gentrify an already gentrified Brooklyn. But since you’ve been living there, have you witnessed Brooklyn evolving?
I’ve been living in the same apartment for about a year-and-a-half now and there was one bar near me when I moved here. Last week we [Shaw’s friends] went barhopping and now there’s like, six bars within two block of my apartment. It’s insane. And I live on the ground floor with windows in the front and the amount of noise outside my window is crazy. Gentrification is happening to everyone. No one is immune to it.

So, with all talks of criticism aside, were did the idea for “Brooklyn Girls” come from?
My writing partner [and producer] Jay [Levine] and I were at a studio in LA trying to write pop songs and there was a list of topics that we were trying to work from. We were trying so hard to make the songs work. But then we decided it wasn’t going to happen, so we wrote about what we wanted to write about. We were thinking about [the 1964 song] “The Girl from Ipanema,” and how she’s tall and tan and dark and lovely and walks down the street. So it was this 40-year-old straight man and this 22-year-old lesbian trying to write about this hot Brooklyn chick. The lyrics kind of adjusted over time and the subject matter got a little more specific, but this powerful, enigmatic female was something we wanted to talk about.

Is that what it means to be a Brooklyn Girl? And can anyone that doesn’t live in Brooklyn be a Brooklyn Girl?
Definitely. I actually think about my little sister, even. She’s 14 and in middle school, and it’s just so funny seeing some of the outfits she puts on and how she goes to school knowing that she doesn’t look like anyone of her friends – she’s the coolest girl in her grade. It’s just really about the confidence to do what you want. For me it was moving to Brooklyn and making my dream happen.

There’s a lot of Brooklyn in the “Brooklyn Girls” video. Was it your idea to show various aspects of the borough?
The video was low budget. We did the whole thing from my apartment and all the extras were my friends. I set up a Facebook event on my personal Facebook page and invited everyone we knew and had PBR for everyone. The reason we had PBR is because it’s the cheapest stuff we could get and we just had a party.

Do you think there’s a certain style to the people who live in Brooklyn?
It may sound corny but expressing yourself through clothes in a way that people don’t have the freedom to do, or at least I didn’t feel like I had the freedom to do when I lived somewhere else, is important. There’s something about being here [in Brooklyn] that no matter how crazy you look, there’s always someone more ridiculous looking. There’s this fearlessness to the way people dress in Brooklyn.

Growing up in Virginia Beach, where you didn’t feel free to express yourself through clothing, how did that affect you? And did moving to Brooklyn help you become more comfortable?
I always wore weird things to school. I remember wearing a ‘50s prom dress in the ninth grade and people saying that it was really weird and me just feeling awesome around school. I never felt natural. But people weren’t looking at me like I was crazy until I moved to Brooklyn.

Where did you go to school?
I went to SVA [School for Visual Art] in New York City for oil painting. I worked pretty much exclusively with self-portraitures and I think making the switch to music and writing was the kind of scene that was best for me.

Also, because of school loan debt, how are you surviving in Brooklyn?
I’m living in what is technically considered a two-bedroom with four roommates. And I’m also just managing my money. I used to do a lot of busking to keep up with money, too. It was kind of those things where you go down to the subway and you’re just playing ukulele and you’re playing by yourself. I could only do about two hours at a time before my thumbs would start bleeding and my voice would get tired. But I would make as much as I could for two hours in the morning, have enough for lunch, and go back and do another two hour shift in the evening. Recently, I haven’t busked as much, but for the first few years that I lived in New York, that’s how I made my income.

And that’s how you were discovered, correct? Playing ukulele in the subway?
I was playing in the subway and one of the trains stopped and my manager Jay and I were just facing each other head on while I was playing. Then the doors closed and the train left, but he took it to the next stop, circled around, came back and then I met him. But it wasn’t until I was looking at my planner from a few years ago, when I first got his number, that I decided to meet him at the studio. It was first time seeing a real recording studio, and my first time writing an original song, and we’ve been together ever since

How did it feel going from busking to the studio?
Incredible. I had been playing in the subway for about a year before I met Jay. I met a lot of people who came up to me while I was busking and said they liked my voice and that they wanted to record me, but it didn’t feel right. But when I met Jay, I knew immediately that he was for real. I felt like someone had finally heard me and I was getting a chance to hone in on this craft that many people devote years and years to. I spent my whole life working on paintings, so to put that energy into singing, and having someone teach me the ways [Levine], was great.

Gotcha! So with the new EP coming out in September, what are your initial thoughts on the album, and what would you like to say to all the haters (and non-haters) on the internet?
I think there’s a lot of subject matter in there and I’m very happy that people are speaking my name. And when the EP comes out, people can make up their minds about whether I’m worth their time or not.

Upcoming CD/Mp3 releases:

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UK Edition:

[Edited 1/10/15 9:02am]

Conya Doss is back to stir your soul.

In preparation for her much-anticipated upcoming seventh studio album, aptly titled VII, the veteran singer-songwriter releases the new single "When We Love."

VII will arrive this spring.

SoundCloud link

Anita Ekberg, International Screen Beauty, Dies at 83

Anita Ekberg in “La Dolce Vita,” released in 1960. Credit The Kobal Collection/Riama Pathe

Anita Ekberg, who became an international symbol of lush beauty and unbridled sensuality in the 1960 Federico Fellini film “La Dolce Vita,” died on Sunday in Rocca di Papa, southeast of Rome. She was 83.

The cause was complications of a long illness, her lawyer, Patrizia Ubaldi, said.

Ms. Ekberg had kept a low public profile in recent years. She did make an appearance in 2010 at a film festival in Rome, where a new restoration of “La Dolce Vita” was having its world premiere. In December 2011 it was reported that she was almost penniless, had no family to help her and was seeking financial assistance from the Fellini Foundation while living at a nursing home in Italy, her adopted country.

Fellini cast Ms. Ekberg in “La Dolce Vita” as a hedonistic American actress visiting Rome. A single moonlit scene — in which she wades into the Trevi Fountain in a strapless evening gown, turns her face ecstatically to the fountain’s waterfall and seductively calls Marcello Mastroianni’s character, a jaded journalist, to join her — established her place in cinema history.

Ms. Ekberg won a Golden Globe, sharing the 1956 award for most promising newcomer with Dana Wynter and Victoria Shaw, but most of her roles focused on her face and figure. When she traveled overseas to entertain American troops in the 1950s, it was as a sex symbol. Bob Hope introduced her as “the greatest thing to come from Sweden since smorgasbord” and joked that her parents had won the Nobel Prize for architecture.

Decades later, she told Entertainment Weekly: “When you’re born beautiful, it helps you start in the business. But then it becomes a handicap.”

Kerstin Anita Marianne Ekberg was born on Sept. 29, 1931, in Malmo, Sweden, one of eight children of a harbor master.

She did some modeling as a teenager and was later named Miss Sweden, traveling to the United States as a special guest at the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City. She did not take home the Miss Universe title but did win an American modeling contract and was soon acting as well.

Ms. Ekberg’s first credited film role was in “Abbott and Costello Go to Mars” (1953), in which she played a voluptuous guard on the planet Venus. During the next decade or so she was kept busy in Hollywood movies, including “Blood Alley” (1955), a drama with John Wayne, in which she played a Chinese woman; “4 for Texas” (1963), a western with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin; “Call Me Bwana” (1963), a comedy with Hope; and two comedies with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, “Artists and Models” (1955) and “Hollywood or Bust” (1956).

She also made a cameo appearance in the travel comedy “If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium” (1969) and, on the more serious side, had a supporting role as the alluring, social-climbing wife of Henry Fonda’s character in King Vidor’s epic production of “War and Peace” (1956). But it was “La Dolce Vita” that made her famous.

She worked for Fellini again, as a billboard photograph that comes to life in the segment of “Boccaccio 70” (1962) that he directed, and as herself in “The Clowns” (1970) and “Intervista” (1987). Over a five-decade acting career, she made more than 50 feature films. Her last screen appearance was in a 2002 episode of the Italian television series “Il Bello Delle Donne.”

Romantically linked with Hollywood actors including Sinatra, Gary Cooper, Tyrone Power, Rod Taylor, Yul Brynner and Errol Flynn, she married and divorced twice. Her husbands were Anthony Steel, a British matinee idol (1956 to 1959), and Rik Van Nutter, an American actor who also appeared in films under the name Clyde Rogers (1963 to 1975). Mr. Steel died in 2001, Mr. Van Nutter in 2005. She had no children.

Ms. Ekberg was often outspoken in interviews, naming famous people she couldn’t bear. And she was frequently quoted as saying that it was Fellini who owed his success to her, not the other way around.

“They would like to keep up the story that Fellini made me famous, Fellini discovered me,” she said in a 1999 interview with The New York Times. “So many have said they discovered me.”

But she did appear reflective at times. “If you want la dolce vita, it is how you look at life,” she told The New York Observer the same year, while in the United States to publicize “The Red Dwarf,” a European film in which she played an aging opera star. “When I go back to Rome, my roses will be in bloom again.”

During an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera on the occasion of her 80th birthday, she was asked if she was lonely. She said yes, a bit. “But I have no regrets,” she added. “I have loved, cried, been mad with happiness. I have won and I have lost.”

Watch it on PBS tonight(10PM NYC) check your local listings:

http://www.pbs.org/tv_schedules/

'Evolution of a Criminal': Film Review

Courtesy of Evolution of a Criminal

The Bottom Line

Few first-person documentaries have as harrowing a story to tell

Opens

Oct. 10

Cast

Dante E. Clark, Vladimir Versailles, Jeremie Harris, Rosalyn Coleman, Benton Greene

Director

Darius Clark Monroe

Darius Clark Monroe's documentary recounts his experience of robbing a bank when he was 16 years old and going to prison

Documentary filmmakers often turn to their own lives for inspiration, but few have as compelling a story to mine as Darius Clark Monroe. When he was 16 years old and living with his financially struggling family in a Houston, Texas suburb, he and two accomplices robbed a bank and managed to make off with approximately $140,000. It wasn't long before he and one of his cohorts was caught — the other somehow managed to avoid prosecution — and Monroe, tried as an adult, was sentenced to a five-year prison sentence as a result of a plea bargain.

He served three years, spending his days working in the fields picking cotton. After his release he eventually wound up in NYU Film School and began working on a documentary that essentially serves as a mea culpa for his criminal act. One of his professors was Spike Lee, who serves as executive producer for Evolution of a Criminal.

While the film could have been an exercise in self-justification, it instead offers no excuses, only explanations. Monroe couldn't stand to see his mother and stepfather, seen in a joyful home movie at their wedding, barely managing to make ends meet. When their house was robbed and several VCRs were taken, it lit a fire under him. He first stole several VCRs from the store in which he worked part-time, justifying the act to himself by reasoning that he was only replacing what had been stolen, and that the corporation that owned the store would hardly miss the loss.

But that initial crime inevitably led to a bigger plan, for which he enlisted two friends. Barging into the bank wearing a skeleton mask and accompanied by a cohort with a shotgun, Monroe actually managed to get away with it until one of the robber's bragging led to his arrest.

The film includes a well-staged, dramatic reenactment of the crime, but its mainly comprised of incisive interviews with the figures involved, including Monroe's parents, who admitted to spending some of the money; various friends and family members; one of the prosecuting attorneys, who expresses gratification that Monroe turned his life around but says that she won't be fully convinced until he turns 50 without recidivism; and even one of the bystanders at the bank, now a pastor, who says that he was less than forgiving at the time. Monroe is also seen attempting to talk to other people involved, including the bank guard, who want nothing to do with him.

Shot over the course of several years, Evolution of a Crime is often rough-hewn in its execution, but it's deeply moving nonetheless. High emotionalism is on ample display, from the mother who tears up while talking about her son's desperate act and her own complicity to the accomplice, clearly still struggling with his life, who off-handedly comments about the past, "Shit happens."

The title, ironically, is somewhat misleading. The story is not about the evolution of a criminal, but rather the evolution of a talented filmmaker who's mined his own sorry past to powerful effect.

Production: June 24th, DeerJen, Aliquot Films
Cast: Dante E. Clark, Vladimir Versailles, Jeremie Harris, Rosalyn Coleman, Benton Greene
Director: Darius Clark Monroe
Producer: Jen Gatien
Executive producer: Spike Lee
Director of photography: Daniel Patterson
Editor: Doug Lenox
Production designer: Charlotte Royer
Costume designer: Sarita Fellows
Composer: T. Griffin

No rating, 83 minutes

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[img:$uid]http://i5.minus.com/ji3UgJHOgZyhb.jpg[/img:$uid]


7 Quick-fire Questions with TokiMonsta
January 2015

LA electronica/ hip hop producer TokiMonsta (Jennifer Lee) is known for her unique take on electronic, hip hop, and dance music.

Her classical upbringing and eclectic taste in music has allowed her to create vast textural soundscapes—a reverberation that fuses vintage sensibilities with progressive inclinations.

Since her participation in the prestigious Red Bull Music Academy in London in 2010, Tokimonsta has gone on to be a part of the Full Flex Express tour, the first electronic music themed train tour that traveled across Canada with Skrillex, Diplo, Pretty Lights, and Grimes, and has performed at countless music festivals like Coachella, Sonar Barcelona, DEMF, WMC, Electric Zoo, SXSW, to name a few.

Hot on the heels of the news that she’s been working with R&B diva Kelly Rowland, Tokimonsta is also the latest producer to step into the studio to remix ''Keep On Lying'' by globe-hopping UK soul-pop singer Jessie Ware.

And now Tokimonsta will be bringing her brand of music to Singapore for the Red Bull Music Academy Stage @ Super 0 Open Air on 17 Jan 2015.

Along with a solid line up of international artistes carefully curated by RBMA, this all day festival is set to breathe new life into 24 TurnHouse Road, a previously abandoned building and bring you an off-beat cultural experience like no other.

December 16, 201411:30 AM ET

Ann Powers

Brandi Carlile's fifth studio album, The Firewatcher's Daughter, will be out on March 3.

David McClister/Courtesy of the artist

It's been common for a few years now to dismiss rock and roll as a shadow of its former self. Usurped by dance beats and hip-hop samples, lost amid the pop spectacle that dominates the Distraction Age, music centered around electric guitars and liberated voices can now seem staid. But maybe we need a new definition of rock and roll; maybe we should return to the original one. In the mid-1950s, when Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly and Little Richard were inventing the practice, to rock was to make a genre-defying leap that connected country to R&B to teenage Top-40 music. Most of all, rocking meant being willing to chance a little rawness.

Brandi Carlile, whose upcoming album is as rock and roll as a singer-songwriter's effort gets, defined the term beautifully in a recent email exchange with me. "There's this indescribable point in rock music where a song becomes known just enough to play it all the way through without falling off the horse, but not enough for an artist to have any control over it," she explained. "That is what I think rock and roll is ... and it's scary." There are many such moments on The Firewatcher's Daughter, which will be released March 3 on ATO Records. Some of them rattle the floorboards; others are quieter, offering beautiful harmonies or rich storytelling. But no matter what they sound like, the songs on this release feel like rock and roll.

According to Carlile, this is because of the way they were recorded. For this first album on the independent ATO after three for Sony subsidiary Columbia, Carlile and the Twins (as she and everyone calls her partners in songwriting and performance, Tim and Phil Hanseroth) went straight into the studio with new material. The atmosphere was intensified by recent milestones the band had crossed, including the pregnancy of Carlile's wife, Catherine Shepherd. With emotions running high and the reins off their process, the band was able to hone in on every great aspect of Carlile's music — its emotional openness, beautiful melodicism and rich textures that reflect a deep engagement with many different corners of American music.

The song we're featuring here, "The Eye," is exactly what it proclaims itself to be: a quiet breath in the midst of the album's glorious storm. Rooted in Carlile's love of both classic country and California pop (particularly Fleetwood Mac), the song is the kind many other artists are going to want to cover. It will be hard to top the original, though; it so eloquently highlights the telepathic connection Carlile shares with her longtime bandmates (on display in a video of the trio singing the song at the bottom of this page). A favorite on recent tours, "The Eye" is destined to become a centerpiece in Carlile's catalog.

Over email, Carlile discussed the making of The Firewatcher's Daughter, the near-supernatural connection she has with the twins, and why being a married parent is as rock and roll as it gets in 2014.

The first thing I thought when I heard the new album was, wow, Brandi and the Twins are rocking! I know you took a different approach in the studio this time. How did that come about?

Thanks! We took SO many different approaches in the studio and the lead-up to it. I'd say the biggest shift that resulted in us really rocking had to do with the fact that we didn't make any demos. To me rock and roll isn't really a genre but more of recklessness or a risk. ... The more something gets ironed out and sure of itself, the less it begins to rock somehow. I don't know what that makes it, but definitely not authentically rock and roll. Being on Sony for all those years was amazing for so many reasons, but one of the few bitter pills we had to swallow was the way we had to "demo" our songs and get them past the powers that be, just to prove they'd make a good record. ... I'd end up with all of these demos and I could hear the moment on them and never get it back again. I adore all of our records we've made, but damn it, you should hear those demos.

The album ranges widely, soundwise, from the country harmonies of "The Eye" to power pop to that Roy Orbison-style heartthrob thing you do, which I love so much. Did you enter the process of writing these songs with the goal of showing your whole range? Other albums have focused on one or the other of your approaches.

Thank you for noticing that stuff! I got some baby clothes from the Orbison Estate that said "pretty woman" with tiny Ray-Bans. ... I died from excitement because you know how much I love him.

Our whole range is so eccentric because of the close "cultishness" of the twins and me, and the fact that the three of us are so different. Having three equal writers for a band is tricky, and not just for sequencing. I'm always trying to pull all the songs together with something, whether it's a drum or a theme or some ambient sound they all have in them, subliminally. I didn't even try to rein it in this time. We totally let go and embraced how different our songwriting is. My wife was nine months pregnant, so there was very little I could control except my dog! All that vulnerability is all over this record.

Family — finding it, keeping it — is a big theme on The Firewatcher's Daughter. I know you started your own family this year, and so did the twins. It's a corny question, but it seems applicable here: How did becoming a parent influence this particular creative work?

Phil's daughter, my niece, is 2. She was in the studio shirtless with a drumstick and her war paint quite often, cheering us on. Tim's son, my nephew, is 1; he was there when he was first learning to laugh, which is so inspiring it's beyond explanation. Believe me, there was a level of intensity and humanness in the studio that the twins and I were not used to. Call it hormones or jitters or whatever, but there were tears and fights and total celebration in that month, and we were all together all of the time. It was crazy, and I think you can hear it.

As far as parenthood goes, it's not a corny question at all because it's right there all the time. It's like the elephant in the room for a rock and roll band, because you're lying if you say you don't lie in bed and wonder if you're cool now that you have songs from Nickelodeon stuck in your head and love your wife and kids. But rock and roll is the people's music. It's supposed to represent all of free-thinking society, and a lot of people have kids, so it is cool to me.

I know that getting paid as a musician is more difficult than ever before because of changes in the way recorded music is distributed. Yet I've also noticed that many of my favorite artists, who are in midcareer, are making the best and most assertive music of their lives. You, for example — this album really feels insistently personal and bold, from the song styles to the production to your singing. How has the changing reality of being a working musician influenced your creative process?

I'm seeing some of the same trend. On a large spectrum. There could be a touch of "nothing to lose" in the air. For me at the time, insistently personal was all I had. I'd been off the road for over a year and had just gotten married and dove into trying to start a family after manically touring my 20s away. Being a working musician was all I knew how to be. It took that time off for me to forget how to be an entertainer and an artist on a major label chasing that dragon, to remember what it was like to write a truly innocent song again.

You've said that "The Eye" is the song that's most representative of your band, because you all share the lead vocal. That's a powerful statement from someone who records under her own name as a "solo artist." Can you talk about the twins as collaborators, and specifically their role in making this song?

When I met the twins I instantly loved them. I had to have them in my life; it was borderline obsessive! They had day jobs and were in a couple of other bands — it was all I could do to get them to want to play with me, let alone be in a band with me. I had six residencies a week, so almost every night I was in a different bar or restaurant, and during the day while they were working I was pinning fliers or busking at [Seattle's] Pike Place Market. The twins would play with me at lots of these gigs, and the idea of three-part harmony at that time wasn't really very cool, but it was somehow solidifying what we would eventually commit to and pursue. But all the gigs were already billed as "Brandi Carlile," and believe me, they didn't want those gigs stuck to them. We just kind of went with that name and never changed it, but at the time, if I thought I could get them to stay with me by calling our band "The Hanseroth Brothers and that bar singer" — that would be our name.

And this song?

"The Eye" used to be two separate songs. One of the ways we write is just to walk around near each other playing our songs and passively wait for the other two to say, "What's that, you should go to that minor chord earlier," or something.

Tim had been playing these two songs that you could really tell were beginning to take shape into something special. Phil and me just suggested that he combine them, and I added a last verse. ... When they took shape we just decided to go for it and make this our one song where we sing evenly all the way through.

I love the catchphrase of this song — "You can dance in a hurricane, but only if you're standing in the eye." It's a proverb! Did it come to you in a flash?

It came to Tim in a flash. I will forever be jealous of the way that man is with words. Some of my favorite things ever said were said by him: "For a heart that is broken makes a beautiful sound."

USA

CANADA

EUROPE

I've been awaiting Diana's return with new material. Thanks, Joe.

[Edited 1/17/15 20:47pm]

Björk's Vulnicura album booklet (in pdf format).

Identity said:

I've been awaiting Diana's return with new material. Thanks, Joe.

[Edited 1/17/15 20:47pm]

Welcome ID. I'm looking forward to bjorks new CD. I bought her latest concert film on Blu-ray/2 CD last week for only $14 on amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Bio...B00OIG3AUE I'm gonna watch it this weekend hopefully.