In the tradition of Mickey Dolenz &amp; ID threads.

New Musica Releases + News/Tours Info 2018 Parte 1

In the tradition of Mickey Dolenz & ID threads.

KACEY MUSGRAVES’ ‘GOLDEN HOUR’ – EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW

CILLEA HOUGHTON

February 23, 2018

Ethan Miller, Getty Images

Kacey Musgraves is releasing her fourth album, Golden Hour, marking her first non-Christmas release since 2015's Pageant Material, and it's a turn in a different direction for the celebrated singer-songwriter.

Musgraves has said that the new album represents a shift in perspective, and she's already let fans hear some of the songs in concert, revealing perhaps the most mature work she's yet undertaken. She credits her marriage with that new sense of direction.

Read on for all of the information we know about Golden Hour, including the songs, the producers, the release date and more.

The Title

Musgraves' fourth album is titled Golden Hour, and she tells Entertainment Weekly that the title, like much of her new music, was inspired by her relationship with husband Ruston Kelly. She came up with the title while viewing the solar eclipse.

"It felt like this majestic time where God was saying, ‘This is a moment to be present for, to witness and relish in the beauty of this incredible world,'" she says. "That was important for me to include on this record. It’s such an ugly time right now with society and politics, and it could be easy to focus on that. But one thing we could use is a little more love and positivity and pretty colors."

The Cover

The cover of Golden Hour shows Musgraves in front of a bright blue backdrop, covering part of her face coyly with a decorative fan.

kacey-musgraves-golden-hour.jpg?w=630&h=630&q=75

Mercury Nashville

The Release Date

Musgraves will release Golden Hour on March 30. The album is currently available for pre-order on major digital platforms.

The Producers

Musgraves worked with a different team to create Golden Hour, co-producing the album with Ian Fitchuk and Daniel Tashian. Fitchuk is a Nashville session musician and songwriter, while Tashian is a songwriter and a member of the Silver Seas.

The Songs

Musgraves has been teasing fans with new songs from Golden Hour by performing them in concert recently. We've seen songs surface online in fan videos including "Velvet Elvis," which was directly inspired by Kelly, "Space Cowboy," inspired by a breakup with her former boyfriend, and "Wonder Woman." Musgraves has also shared a song online called "Butterflies," and when she revealed the track listing and pre-sale, she dropped the studio versions of "Space Cowboy" and "Butterflies."

She tells EW the music is "trippy," listing influences from Neil Yong and Sade to the Bee Gees. Musgraves collaborated with writers including Luke Laird, Shane McAnally and Natalie Hemby for the project, as well as her co-producers, Fitchuk and Tashian. She recorded the album in the studio above Sheryl Crow's horse barn, and Crow sometimes hung out at the sessions.

Though the album still bears her trademark wit, it's a turn in a softer direction emotionally.

“I have a lot more love songs this time around, and I’ve never been one to write a love song and really feel it,” Musgraves says. “That probably sounds like the most depressing thing ever. [But] I’m coming off getting married and being in this golden hour of my personal life, where all these things are finally coming to fruition. I found myself inspired to write about this person and all these things he brought out in me that weren’t there before.”

The Track Listing

1. "Slow Burn"
2. "Lonely Weekend"
3. "Butterflies"
4. "Oh, What a World"
5. "Mother"
6. "Love Is a Wild Thing"
7. "Space Cowboy"
8. "Happy & Sad"
9. "Velvet Elvis"
10. "Wonder Woman"
11. "High Horse"
12. "Golden Hour"
13. "Rainbow"

The Single

Musgraves has not revealed a single from Golden Hour.

The Record Label

Mercury Nashville will release Golden Hour as it has released Musgraves' other three major label albums.

The Tour

Musgraves is touring with Little Big Town and Midland in 2018 on the Breakers Tour, and she'll join Harry Styles on the road later in the year as part of his Live on Tour in June and July.

Album Of The Week: David Byrne American Utopia

Tom Breihan @tombreihan | March 6, 2018 - 10:12 am

One Tuesday morning, just a little under 10 years ago, my wife and I learned that she was pregnant. I didn’t know what the fuck to do with this information. I couldn’t process it. It didn’t seem real. For a longer-than-probably-appropriate time, I convinced myself that it wasn’t real, that the pregnancy test had somehow fucked up. I should’ve held my wife’s hand through that moment of transition, supporting her and letting her know that everything was going to be OK. Instead, she pretty much did that for me. And then we both went off to work. It was, after all, a Tuesday morning, and you aren’t supposed to tell anyone about pregnancies until they’re a lot further along. On my way to work that morning, I robotically put Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, David Byrne and Brian Eno’s collaborative album, on my iPod — not for any real special reason, but because it had just come out and because I’d been listening to it a lot around then. And that, in a weird way, is when the entire seismic shift in my life became real.

If you’ve never heard Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, you should. It’s a beautiful piece of work, a strange and twitchy and gorgeous album. Its songs aren’t about anything; they’re simply headblown musings about the world. But in the confused and denial-plagued headspace where I found myself on that one Tuesday morning, Byrne’s lyrics sounded like precious drops of elliptical wisdom: “Everything that happens will happen today / And nothing has changed, but nothing’s the same.” About halfway into the album, there’s a part where Byrne quietly crows, “Everybody’s happy to be a baby daddy.” I don’t know what he hoped to convey, what he was thinking about when he wrote it. But in that moment, it was exactly what I needed to hear. The confusion, the money-stress, the suddenly incomprehensible prospect of my own immediate future — all that melted away in an instant (temporarily, anyway), and this guy reminded me that wonderful and amazing things were about to happen in my life.

David Byrne has a way of doing that, of bursting out with strange insight that punches you in the gut when you may not be expecting it. He could’ve been granting moments like that to suddenly expectant parents for 40-plus years. If my parents had a moment like that with my own birth looming, it could’ve been set to something that Byrne wrote. (That’s if my parents were cooler. As it was, if they did have that moment, it was probably set to Arlo Guthrie or some shit.) American Utopia, Byrne’s new album, doesn’t have any moments that have fucked me up in the same way, but that has a whole lot more to do with me than it does with Byrne. It’s full of moments that certainly could fuck you up if you heard them at the right time of your life.

If American Utopia has one stomach-punch change-your-life song, it’s probably “Every Day Is A Miracle,” a song that ponders questions that you might’ve never even thought to ask: “Now the chicken imagines a heaven / Full of roosters and plenty of corn / And God is a very old rooster / And eggs are like Jesus, his son.” Byrne sings a lot about animals, and whenever he does, he brings his own dizzy logic to it. Byrne’s ideas go way beyond the idea that we can never truly know another person’s mind. They get into inter-species stuff, into how fundamentally unknowable the world is: “A cockroach might eat Mona Lisa / The Pope don’t mean shit to a dog.” One song later, he makes that theme a little more plain: “Now a dog cannot imagine what it is to drive a car / And we, in turn, are limited by what it is we are.”

That’s a profound moment, and it comes in the context of a song that, at least as it’s beginning, is about some sort of political calamity: “The judge was all hungover when the president took the stand / So he didn’t really notice when things got out of hand.” But the particulars of the scandal, if that’s even what it is, don’t interest Byrne at all. He cares more about what the beleaguered office functionaries looking out their windows, seeing dogs, and realizing that none of it matters. That’s how Byrne’s brain works, and it’s how his sense of humor works, too. Byrne always zigs when it seems like he’s about to zag, and the sheer unpredictability of American Utopia is a huge part of the joy in it. (This is an album where Byrne, beloved elder statesman of American smart-kid music, rhymes “the dick of a donkey” with “that’s why you want me.”)

Byrne’s never been an explicitly political artist, but that side has always been there. And to call an album American Utopia during this particularly dystopian moment is akin to making “Life During Wartime” during the height of Reagan-era nuclear anxiety. Byrne never sings about Donald Trump or anything, even though the album does occasionally stray into on-the-nose commentary about our culture of convenience (“Vacuum packed don’t rock my world / And the money-back guarantee don’t make my day”). But Byrne still has things to tell us about the way the world works. Consider “Bullet.” It’s a song about a bullet shooting its way through a person’s body, snuffing out a life a little more as it passes through every organ: “The bullet went into him / Through his heart, with thoughts of you / Where your kisses he inhaled / The lies and the truth.” It’s a sad song, but it’s not tense or angry. It’s serene, Byrne laying all this bodily devastation out as a simple matter of fact. It’s a profoundly calming song about violent death, and we don’t exactly get many of those, do we?

Much of the press around American Utopia seems to be revolving around the various people who contributed to it. And it’s true; there’s a fascinating and astonishing level of talent on display. Nearly as much as Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, American Utopia represents a collaboration between Byrne and his old comrade Brian Eno. Eno gets co-writing credit on most of the album’s songs, and the album’s credits says that it’s “based on original tracks” by Eno. But a whole lot of younger people also helped out. Daniel Lopatin, better known to most of us as the queasy drone titan Oneohtrix Point Never, was heavily involved in the album’s production, and he gets writing credits, too. At various points, the credits also include people like Sampha, Ariel Rechtshaid, Jam City, Doveman, the xx producer Rodaidh McDonald, and Onyx Collective’s Isaiah Barr. There are legends on this album, and there are young dance producers whose names I barely recognize. It’s quite a collection. (No women contribute, but, to Byrne’s credit, he issued an embarrassed statement when someone pointed that out to him.)

But this isn’t a glorified compilation. Byrne is a great collaborator, someone who’s always been down to lend his voice to just about any song that he finds interesting. (In a Pitchfork review, I once called Byrne “the type who would show up to the studio if you promised [him] a half-empty bag of Doritos,” and Byrne later brought it up in an interview: “The online music magazine Pitchfork once wrote that I would collaborate with anyone for a bag of Doritos. This wasn’t intended as a compliment — though, to be honest, it’s not that far from the truth.” Sorry, David Byrne!)

On American Utopia, everyone is here to serve David Byrne’s vision. They’ve created a sound that sparkles and pulsates in gorgeously sidelong ways. Latin-disco counter-rhythms fight for space with glassily ambient keyboards and skittering, burping sound effects. On “It’s Not Dark Up Here,” someone puts a weird filter on Byrne’ voice as he bellows — “Heyyyyy!” — and it makes him sound like a Muppet. “Dog’s Mind” uses a synth chime that sounds very much like an Apple computer booting up. This is a busy, disorienting sound, and there are moments where it gets too busy, where I wish Byrne wouldn’t be quite so relentlessly exploratory with his sound. But it’s a sound that makes its own kind of sense, and its moments of beauty, when Byrne just lets his melodies shine through, are transcendent. Maybe they’re even transcendent enough that, if the conditions are right, they could turn your whole life around. Nothing has changed, but nothing’s the same.

American Utopia is out 3/9 on Todomundo/Nonesuch. Stream it here.

[Edited 3/26/18 11:52am]

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Xscape Reveal Cover & Tracklist For ‘Here For It’ EP

Published: Tuesday 27th Feb 2018 by Sam

All roads lead to March 2nd for Xscape.

Now a trio (and going by the name Xscap3), the group will unleash ‘Here For It’ on said date.

The six-song set was executive produced by Tricky Stewart and serves as the ladies first body of work since reuniting for a wildly successful tour and reality show.

As reported, member Kandi Burruss won’t be featuring on new material, due to other commitments (including Broadway).

In any case, check out the updated cover above and peep the tracklist below…

1. Memory Lane
2. Dream Killa
3. Wifed Up
4. Here for It
5. Craving
6. Last of Me

Marsha Ambrosius brings us the surprise release of her new EP, "Fvck & Love."

Privy to the surprise release phenomenon, Marsha Ambrosius hits us with a new 6-track EP out of the blew, carrying the provocative title, Fvck & Love.

This EP will mark some as short, but it's very consistent and perhaps it's better to leave us wanting more than having heard too much. We have some production from Da Internz, Eric Hudson and Marsha Ambrosius even tries her hand at production for the interlude.

If you were a fan of her previous tracks, such as her remix to "Far Away," featuring Busta Rhymes, give this EP a go. It has a haunting and beautiful quality not easy to forget.

Tracklist
01. So Good (Prod. By Da Internz)
02. Take It (Prod. By Oak)
03. Seduction Interlude (Prod. By Marsha Ambrosius)
04. 'Come (Prod. By Gooooooo! Music)
05. 69 (Prod. By Da Internz)
06. Friends & Lovers (Prod. By Eric Hudson)

“Weird Al” Yankovic �...n Polka”

Peter Helman @_peterhelman | March 2, 2018 - 12:01 am

The-Hamilton-Polka-Weird-Al-Cover-Art-1519962192-640x640.jpg

Every month, Lin-Manuel Miranda is dropping a new piece of Hamilton content in a series that he’s calling, yes, Hamildrops. Previously, the Hamildrops series has given us a Decemberists song about Ben Franklin. And now, in the latest installment, it’s given us something much more precious: a “Weird Al” Yankovic song.

Sort of a Weird Al song, anyway. “The Hamilton Polka” is exactly what it sounds like, a polka medley of songs from Hamilton. Pretty much every Weird Al album features a polka medley of a bunch of recent pop songs, and this is like that, except, you know, only with Hamilton songs. Your enjoyment of it will probably vary depending on how into Hamilton you are, but either way, it’s Weird Al, and Weird Al is indisputably great. Listen below.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Lin-Manuel Miranda is a big Weird Al fan, and they performed together a couple of years ago. So he, for one, is very very excited about this team-up:

Lin-Manuel Miranda✔@Lin_Manuel

Real talk, I’ve been FaceTiming friends and playing them tonight’s Hamildrop ALL DAY

9:25 PM - Mar 1, 2018

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[Edited 3/6/18 16:54pm]

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Reply #2 posted 03/06/18 8:45am

2freaky4church
1

avatar

Black Panther soundtrack. great.

All you others say Hell Yea!! woot!

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Reply #3 posted 03/06/18 9:02am

by BWW News Desk Mar. 2, 2018

Hopes and Dreams: The Lullaby Project to be Released on April 20; Featuring Joyce DiDonato, Fiona Apple, Patti LuPone, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and More

A lullaby is a simple expression of the most universal human condition, the bond between parent and child. One of the earliest lullabies in recorded history was written in 2000 BC, and 2018 marks the 150th anniversary of Brahms' Lullaby, so this precious musical tradition has deep cultural and emotional roots. These personal songs bring people together, span generations, and tell stories about where we come from, who we are now, and our hopes for the future.

The legacy continues with the release of Hopes and Dreams: The Lullaby Project on April 20 on Decca Gold (Verve Label Group). The recording is inspired by the Lullaby Project, a program of Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute which pairs pregnant women, new mothers, and family members with professional artists to write and sing personal lullabies for their babies, supporting maternal health, aiding child development, and strengthening the bond between parent and child. Hopes and Dreams: The Lullaby Project features fifteen lullabies written by parents from across New York City, as performed by Fiona Apple, theBrentano String Quartet, Lawrence Brownlee, Rosanne Cash, Joyce DiDonato, Janice Freeman(The Voice 2017), Rhiannon Giddens (Nashville), Angélique Kidjo, Patti LuPone, Natalie Merchant (10,000 Maniacs), Dianne Reeves, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Pretty Yende, and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Pre-order the album now and receive IG track of Janice Freeman performing "Wildest Dreams"

Hopes and Dreams: The Lullaby Project brings together an internationally acclaimed roster of talent to perform and record these personal lullabies. The album includes tracks in Spanish and French as well as English, reflecting the multi-cultural identities of the mothers themselves. The track "Esso, Esso," sung in French and Ditammari (a language from northwest Benin), features Grammy Award-winning Beninese singer-songwriter Angélique Kidjo, and salsa and bolero vocalist Gilberto Santa Rosaperforms in Spanish on "Mi Niña Bella." All of the performers on the recording represent a wide variety of musical genres, including pop, folk, classical, country, salsa, and jazz.

Janice Freeman, who drew legions of fans for her soulful performances as a contestant on The Voicein 2017, chose this project as her first recording since appearing on the popular music show as part of Team Miley Cyrus. While on The Voice, it became known that she struggled as a single mother with the passing of her daughter Hannah's father from cancer just four years after Hannah's birth. Subsequently, Janice herself was diagnosed with cancer and lupus and dedicated her performances on the show to her daughter.

Click to listen to Janice Freeman's recording of "Wildest Dreams" from
Hopes and Dreams: The Lullaby Project

Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato lends her renowned vocal talents to the project's title track, "Hopes and Dreams," recorded with the Brentano String Quartet. Joyce has been involved with the Lullaby Project for over five years and met Elsa Negron, the mother who wrote "Hopes and Dreams," when she performed the song at a special concert hosted by Carnegie Hall. Elsa commented, "I was astonished that anyone - especially a famous musician and an opera singer at that - wanted to sing my song. The message I wanted to send to my daughter and future children is that you can do anything you set your mind to do." Joyce, who along with producer Glen Rovenwas a driving force in initiating the idea of a Lullaby Project album, said about Elsa and the mothers involved in the program, "This project, for me, the common denominator is music and love... I don't think there is any more important relationship than that between mother and child... and it is quite incredible to meet a young woman who has written this for her child, and then she gives me the honor of being able to give voice and breath to it."

The Lullaby Project was inspired, in part, by the experience of songwriter Thomas Cabaniss, who years ago began creating personal lullabies as gifts to friends expecting children, and later for his own kids. Carnegie Hall's first Lullaby Project took place at Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx in December 2011, led by Cabaniss and fellow teaching artist Emily Eagen, in response to the needs the hospital saw among their pregnant teen patients. Since then, more than 800 lullabies have been written and recorded in healthcare settings, schools, foster care settings, homeless shelters and correctional facilities in New York City, across the United States, and around the globe. Extending across the country and through several international pilot programs, the Lullaby Project enables twenty partner organizations to support families in their own communities. To better understand the effect of music in early childhood development, Carnegie Hall has also commissioned two research papers from Dr. Dennie Palmer Wolf, an expert in the field, entitled Why Making Music Matters and Being Together, Being Well.

Over the last three years, the artists featured on this album, the songwriters, Carnegie Hall teaching artists, and partners all connected with a single collective purpose: to celebrate the families who have shared their personal stories through the Lullaby Project. These are stories about love and loss, resiliency and joy, and about holding the people we love close, wherever we go.

Lullabies are intimate and tender expressions of our hopes and dreams for our families, for ourselves and for our world. Join us in singing, sharing, and creating lullabies with those you cherish most.

Learn more at carnegiehall.org/lullaby.

Hopes and Dreams: The Lullaby Project: Track Listing

1. "Wildest Dreams" - by Dariys Medina with Sarah Elizabeth Charles

Performed by Janice Freeman

2. "Hey Baby Boy" - by Anonymous Lullaby Project Participant with Thomas Cabaniss

Performed by Natalie Merchant

3. "My Baby Likes Bacon" - by Tammy Harvey with John Chin and Emily Eagen

Performed by Rhiannon Giddens

4. "Noah" - by Anonymous Lullaby Project Participant with Glen Roven

Performed by Catherine Zeta-Jones

5. "Winter in My Heart" - by Anonymous Lullaby Project Participant with Emily Eagen

Performed by Rosanne Cash

6. "Peace" - by Tamilles Fernandes with Deidre Struck

Performed by Joyce DiDonato

7. "Mi Niña Bella" - by Andrea Nina with Claudette Sierra

Performed by Gilberto Santa Rosa with Camelia Muñiz

8. "Sweet Dreams (Close Your Eyes)" - by Jessica Marmolejos with Thomas Cabaniss

Performed by Patti LuPone

9. "Mansell's Waltz" - by Virginia Rodriguez with Emily Eagen

Performed by Rhiannon Giddens

10. "Mother's Day" - by Kesha Hyman with James Shipp

Performed by Pretty Yende

11. "Esso, Esso" - by Odette N'Dah with Emily Eagen

Performed by Angélique Kidjo

12. "I Can't Wait to Meet You" - by Solangie Jimenez with Thomas Cabaniss

Performed by Fiona Apple

13. "The Moment You Were Born" - by Amado Zubidi with Frederic Las Fargeas

Performed by Dianne Reeves

14. "Hopes and Dreams" - by Elsa Negron with Matt Aronoff and James Shipp

Performed by Joyce DiDonato and the Brentano String Quartet

15. "Dream Big" - by Shaylor Johnson with Thomas Cabaniss

Performed by Lawrence Brownlee with Rhiannon Giddens, Patti LuPone, Angélique Kidjo, Joyce DiDonato, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Young People's Chorus of New York City, and the Dream Big Choir

Produced by Glen Roven, Ira Yuspeh, and Mitch Yuspeh.

Ariana Grande Reportedly Signs On To Play Elphaba The Witch In 'Wicked'

posted by James Dinh

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Ariana Grande's dreams might just come true if the rumors of her taking over the role as Elphaba the witch in the Broadway hit, Wicked, prove to be true.

Earlier this week, The Sun reported that the 24-year-old pop star will soon replace actress Jackie Burns for the role and it's "a huge feat" for the star. "The role of Elphaba is one of the most coveted parts to play on Broadway," the outlet reported. "Only a very select group of actresses have been chosen over its 13-year run and Ariana is in talks to take the gig. Bosses believe she's got the acting talent to take it on and think it’s a bonus that her pop star appeal can pull in fresh audiences."

During a Carpool Karaoke segment in August 2017, Grande spoke about what a big deal it would be to take on the role. "I was a huge theatre nerd my whole life, still am. It's what I put on when I need to restore my soul and heal myself. It brings you back to home," she gushed. "One of my dream roles is to play Elphaba. I would do it tomorrow!" Wickedopened up on Broadway in 2003 and has seen the likes of Idina Menzel, Stephanie J. Block, Marcie Dodd, Kristy Cates and more play the famed character.

Meanwhile, it seems like Grande is also nearing the completion of her fourth studio album, which was reportedly produced entirely by Max Martin and Pharrell. If all of the whispers about upcoming ventures are true, 2018 is definitely going to one busy year for the pop star.

Photo: Getty Images

Luis Miguel Announces North American Tour ¡México Por Siempre!

TV News Desk Feb. 12, 2018

Mexican singer, icon, and one of the most successful artists in Latin American history, Luis Miguel, announced North American dates for his ¡México Por Siempre! Tour. The 22-date outing will kick off May 4 in San Diego, CA, followed by his first ever headlining performance at the world-famous Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, CA on May 6. Produced by Live Nation, the highly anticipated tour will also make stops in major cities across the U.S. and Canada, including Chicago, Houston, Miami, Toronto, New York, and more.

Tickets will go on sale to the general public beginning Friday, February 16 at 10am local time at LiveNation.com. Citi® is the official pre-sale credit card of the ¡México Por Siempre! Tour. As such, Citi® cardmembers will have access to purchase pre-sale tickets beginning February 13 at 10AM local time through Citi's Private Pass® program. For complete pre-sale details visit www.citiprivatepass.com .

¡México Por Siempre! was also the title of Miguel's most recent studio album, which was certified double platinum.

LUIS MIGUEL ¡MÉXICO POR SIEMPRE! 2018 NORTH AMERICAN TOUR DATES:

DATE CITY VENUE

Friday, May 4, 2018 San Diego, CA Mattress Firm Amphitheatre

Sunday, May 6, 2018 Los Angeles, CA Hollywood Bowl

Thursday, May 10, 2018 San Jose, CA * SAP Center

Friday, May 11, 2018 Sacramento, CA * Golden 1 Center

Sunday, May 13, 2018 Phoenix, AZ Comerica Theatre

Saturday, May 19, 2018 Salt Lake City, UT USANA Amphitheatre

Sunday, May 20, 2018 Denver, CO Pepsi Center

Wednesday, May 23, 2018 Chicago, IL Allstate Arena

Friday, May 25, 2018 Dallas, TX American Airlines Center

Saturday, May 26, 2018 Laredo, TX Laredo Energy Arena

Sunday, May 27, 2018 Houston, TX Toyota Center

Wednesday, May 30, 2018 Orlando, FL Amway Center<

Friday, June 1, 2018 Miami, FL AmericanAirlines Arena

Tuesday, June 5, 2018 Washington, DC The Theatre at MGM National Harbor

Thursday, June 7, 2018 Toronto, ON Budweiser Stage

Friday, June 8, 2018 Montreal, QC Bell Centre

Saturday, June 9, 2018 New York, NY Madison Square Garden

Thursday, August 30, 2018 San Antonio, TX AT&T Center

Friday, August 31, 2018 Edinburg, TX Bert Ogden Arena

Sunday, September 2, 2018 El Paso, TX Don Haskins Center

Saturday, September 8, 2018 Anaheim, CA Honda Center

Sunday, September 9, 2018 Fresno, CA Save Mart Center

*on sale beginning 12pm local time

Luis Miguel has always established records without precedents, not only because of his extraordinary voice, his versatility which lands him in different genres such as pop, bolero, mariachi, big band and romantic ballads, but also because of the preparation, elegance and his true artistry, all of which has made him one of the great icons in music and a major Latin artist around the world.

Throughout his exceptional 36-year career, Luis Miguel has released 33 albums, many of which have reached gold, platinum and diamond status. He has sold over 100 million albums all over the world, has a star on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood, and is a 6-time Grammy winner and 4-time Latin Grammy winner. The International Press Association in Las Vegas has honored him with their most prestigious award-The Galardón Diamante. After completing an extensive 3 and a half year-long tour, he holds the record of highest tour revenue in the history of any Latin artist. During the prestigious Viña del Mar Festival, he received the Gaviota in silver, gold and platinum, which has never been granted to any other artist. He has broken attendance records on each of his world tours and has received numerous other awards. In the National Auditorium, the most important forum in Mexico, Luis Miguel SHATTERED attendance records with 223 shows at this venue, which has yet to be surpassed to this date.

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After seven years in the hinterlands of controversy, legal issues with a former representative, and canceled concerts, Luis Miguel returns in grand style with the chart-topping ¡México por Siempre!, his second mariachi album. Evidence of its quality surfaced in October with the pre-release single "La Fiesta del Mariachi," featuring the surprise accompaniment of the celebrated Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán, one of the tradition's greatest bands. Each song on this 14-track set is a classic mariachi number, all perfectly suited for Miguel's golden, passionate voice. Other highlights among the classics include "El Balajú," "¿Por Qué Te Conocí?" and Miguel's nearly inimitable version of Jose Alfredo Jimenez's "Sin Sangre en Las Venas."

Lana Del Rey covers Madonna:

https://www.stereogum.com/1985799/lana-del-rey-you-must-love-me-madonna-cover/music/

[Edited 3/6/18 16:59pm]

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Reply #4 posted 03/07/18 7:04am

Inside Van Morrison's Leg... Now' Tour

Toni Braxton Announces New studio Album "Sex and Cigarettes" Out March 23

Style Magazine Newswire | 2/9/2018, 1:44 p.m.

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Toni Braxton

(February 9, 2018 – New York, NY) Multi-platinum, seven-time Grammy Award®-winning superstar and icon Toni Braxton announces the release of SEX AND CIGARETTES on March 23 via Def Jam Recordings. SEX AND CIGARETTES - the ninth album in Toni’s legendary career - is her first studio album since 2014’s Grammy-winning collaboration with Babyface, Love, Marriage & Divorce and her first solo album in almost a decade. The album was co-produced by Toni herself and includes the single “Deadwood,” (released September 2017), which recently topped the charts at Urban AC radio. Her brand new single “Long As I Live” is out now, and is one of several tracks Toni co-wrote and produced for the album. The album also includes a duet with Colbie Caillat (on “My Heart”).

In support of the album, Toni is plotting the SEX AND CIGARETTES TOUR, a North American trek set for the spring, with tour dates and ticket info to be announced very soon.

This year commemorates 25 years in the music business for Toni Braxton, since the release of her eponymously titled 8x-platinum debut album in 1993, on Arista Records. The album included her career-defining worldwide hits “Another Sad Love Song” and “Breathe Again,” which made Grammy® history by winning consecutive awards in 1994 and 1995 respectively, for Best Female R&B Performance. The album also generated Toni’s 1994 Grammy® as Best New Artist.

SEX AND CIGARETTES marks Toni’s first major release since Love, Marriage & Divorce, her Grammy®-winning Best R&B Album collaboration with Kenny ‘Babyface’ Edmonds, released February 2014. A critically acclaimed landmark project for both artists, Love, Marriage & Divorce was hailed as a “quiet-storm oasis” in People magazine’s 3-star review, and “a re-animator” by the New York Times.

In March 2014, Toni Braxton became the latest Grammy Award®-winning artist to join the cast of the Broadway musical After Midnight as “Special Guest Star” vocalist (with Babyface), for a limited engagement run at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre. After Midnight reintroduced the Cotton Club’s exciting tradition of welcoming contemporary artists in limited engagements throughout the musical's 272-performance run. In May 2014, Toni’s heartfelt memoir Unbreak My Heart was published by HarperCollins. She and her sisters have enjoyed huge success in Braxton Family Values, one of WE tv’s flagship reality series which makes it highly anticipated return this March.

TRACKLIST

Deadwood

Coping

Long As I Live

My Heart (feat. Colbie Caillat)

FOH

Sorry

Tear Me Up, Knock You Down (Featuring En Vogue)

Sex & Cigarettes

Mission

Zodiac

Don't Look Back

The Last Time

Sarah Jarosz: Undercurrent review – classy modern Americana

4/5stars

(Sugar Hill)

Neil Spencer

Last modified on Sat 2 Dec 2017 11.34 EST

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Sarah Jarosz: maturing.

Being a prodigy means growing up in public, and over three previous albums this young Texan’s songs have sometimes been outshone by her multi-instrumental skills. Graduated from the New England Conservatory and relocated to New York, the 25-year-old brings a touch of maturity to Undercurrent, helped by an impeccable backing crew and co-writes with the likes of Aoife O’Donovan and the Milk Carton Kids’ Joey Ryan.

The opener, Early Morning Light, is all her own, however; solo and bereft. Standout House of Mercy has a touch of Gillian Welch’s bluegrass severity. Lost Dog is a banjo-driven snipe at a lover, while Comin’ Undone hits an upbeat note. Spaciously produced, it’s a classy piece of modern Americana.

Track listing

No.TitleWriter(s)Length 1. "Early Morning Light" Sarah Jarosz 2:36 2. "Green Lights" Jarosz, Luke Reynolds 3:35 3. "House of Mercy" Jedd Hughes, Jarosz 4:38 4. "Everything to Hide" Jarosz 3:24 5. "Back of My Mind" Jarosz, Joey Ryan 3:38 6. "Comin' Undone" (featuring Parker Millsap) Jarosz, Parker Millsap 3:01 7. "Take Another Turn" Jarosz 2:34 8. "Lost Dog" Sarah Buxton, Hughes, Jarosz 3:39 9. "Take Me Back" Jarosz, Ryan 2:34 10. "Still Life" Jarosz, Aoife O'Donovan 2:54 11. "Jacqueline" Jarosz 3:50 Total length:

36:43

WME Signs Dolly Parton

By Variety Staff

@Variety

Variety Staff

CREDIT: JOE PUGLIESE/AUGUST

WME has signed country music legend Dolly Parton to a North American deal, the agency announced today (March 6).

WME’s Nashville office is co-headed by Greg Oswald, who commented: “We couldn’t be more thrilled to work with Dolly Parton. She is the definition of an icon. When we approached her team about the opportunity to represent Dolly, it became clear that this was an ideal marriage given her business aspirations and our capabilities across the WME network. We look forward to helping her build upon her success across multiple platforms.”

Added Parton’s longtime manager Danny Nozell: “We believe that WME is uniquely positioned to help elevate Dolly and her brand at this wonderful stage in her career. WME has a vast global network in the entertainment market, especially in the areas that we have strategically identified as priority such as licensing and unique commercial and touring opportunities.”

Parton has had a record 25 No. 1 hits on the Billboard Country charts, less than a quarter of the 110 career-charting singles she has released. Parton has won 7 Grammys and was awarded the National Medal of Arts, among other accolades.

In non-music sectors, Parton has also made an impact, opening her own theme park, Dollywood, in 1986, and launching the philanthropic Dollywood Foundation. A noted actress, Parton co-starred in the 1980 comedy “9 to 5,” which has since been adapted for Broadway and will soon launch a modern-day sequel, it’s been reported.

Free Download: https://noisetrade.com/gr...ure-it-out

“Grace Kelly has an electric charisma on-stage that instantly ignites the room,” says, bandleader Jon Batiste of CBS's The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Saxophonist, singer, and composer Grace Kelly plays with the heart and passion of an old soul yet with the genre-bending zest and energy of a 25-year-old. Having been a regular on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’s band, Jon Batiste and Stay Human, Grace Kelly’s 10th CD Trying To Figure It Out was voted #2 Jazz Album of The Year in 2016 Downbeat Magazine Readers Poll.

Van Morrison Preps New LP 'You're Driving Me Crazy'

Soul singer reworks solo material, jazz and blues standards on 39th album, featuring Hammond organ/trumpet player Joey DeFrancesco

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Van Morrison reworked jazz/blues standards and career-spanning solo material for his new LP 'You're Driving Me Crazy.' MIguel Tona/EPA/REX Shutterstock

By Ryan Reed

2 hours ago

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Collaborators recall singer's 1973 run with Caledonia Soul Orchestra that produced classic double live album

You're Driving Me Crazy will be available in single-CD and two-LP formats. The vocalist will issue a limited-edition seven-inch single featuring "Close Enough for Jazz" backed with a cover of Guitar Slim's "The Things I Used to Do" for Record Store Day 2018 on Saturday, April 21st.

Jazz journeyman DeFrancesco – who has previously worked with Miles Davis, John McLaughlin and Grover Washington Jr. – recruited his own band for the Morrison sessions, with guitarist Dan Wilson, drummer Michael Ode and tenor saxophone player Troy Roberts contributing to the LP.

You're Driving Me Crazy includes reworked jazz and blues classics (Peter Chatman's "Every Day I Have the Blues," Eddie Jones' "The Things I Used to Do," Cole Porter's "Miss Otis Regrets") alongside tunes from throughout Morrison's discography ("The Way Young Lovers Do from 1968's Astral Weeks through the title-track to 2005's Magic Time).

Morrison released two albums in 2017: the blues-focused Roll With the Punches and jazz-based Versatile, both of which blended covers and originals.

You're Driving Me Crazy Track List

1. "Miss Otis Regrets" (Cole Porter)
2. "Hold It Right There" (Terry, Grey, Vinson)
3. "All Saints Day" (Van Morrison)
4. "The Way Young Lovers Do" (Van Morrison)
5. "The Things I Used To Do" (Eddie Jones)
6. "Travellin' Light" (John Mercer, James Mundy, James Young)
7. "Close Enough For Jazz" (Van Morrison)
8. "Goldfish Bowl" (Van Morrison)
9. "Evening Shadows" (Van Morrison / Acker Bilk)
10. "Magic Time" (Van Morrison)
11. "You're Driving Me Crazy" (Walter Donaldson)
12. "Every Day I Have The Blues" (Peter Chatman)
13. "Have I Told You Lately" (Van Morrison)
14. "Sticks and Stones" (Titus Turner)
15. "Celtic Swing" (Van Morrison)

Sarah Blasko: Depth of Field review – sublime vulnerability with a dark undercurrent

5/5stars

Australian artist’s impressive sixth album is an intimate exploration of desirehaunted by a sense of deep disquiet

Everett True

@everetttrue

Thu 15 Feb 2018 12.00 ESTLast modified on Thu 15 Feb 2018 12.02 EST

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Sarah Blasko’s sixth album could be her international breakthrough. Photograph: Kylie Coutts/EMI

Is Sarah Blasko going through deep trauma, or a massive break-up? Many of the songs on her new album, Depth of Field, seem to indicate so.

In some places they call to mind Donna Summer; in others they are reminiscent of Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s troubling (and sublime) Murder on the Dancefloor. Her music is shot through with desire, a longing that goes beyond the usual template of imagined and sometimes real slights. Calling a song Never Let Me Go may well not be the most original idea around, but Blasko invests the phrase with a degree of vulnerability and hope that goes far beyond the norm.

The songs on Blasko’s sixth album feel possessed of a dark undercurrent, the sort of edge that comes around after you have spent one too many late-night hours waiting for your partner to return home from carousing. You can visualise the mirror ball throwing cascade confusion during the opening song, Phantom, but the lyrics refer to something darker yet, a “phantom heartbeat”.

Is Blasko singing about an imaginary child? A never-born? Her poise and her voice are immaculate – crystalline, enticing – but the music and sentiments seem deeply troubled. Blasko herself claims the song concerns other matters entirely.

“I asked my dad [a history and English teacher] to record himself reading poetry for inspiration,” she says. “He quoted a line from Nietzsche which contained the word ‘phantom’. This song is about the role that influential people play in your life, forming who you are. I feel I carry them with me. Their presence is so tangible even when they’re not there, like a phantom limb.”

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The cover of Sarah Blasko’s sixth album, Depth of Field. Photograph: EMI

A phantom limb: this is what Depth of Field feels to me right now. Songs like the swirling Heaven Sent and beckoning intimacy of Read My Mind race around my head like a real friend, or a forbidden lover. I have carried this album almost everywhere with me for weeks now. Whether it is playing through my headphones or not, Blasko’s cajoling, sensational voice soundtracks the inner sadness and mundane reality of the 10.09 train to Guildford. Another half-hour delay? Another chance to listen to Blasko.

I stand by those sentiments for Blasko’s sixth, recorded on the cusp of an international breakthrough, surely. The brace of betrayal songs – A Shot and Never Let Me Go – stalk these lonely streets with menace and unrequited desire in their hearts – brutal and honest and suffused with melancholia. These are as great as any Australian pop I have heard, from Kylie Minogue to The Easybeats. Similarly, Blasko’s music often feels like it follows the lineage of mod and the core values of that style: aspirational, inspirational, forward looking, tightly wound, late-night fuelled.

Every now and then, Blasko wanders into glam-stomp diva territory. And of course she owns it. The deliciously naughty (not fragile at all) Everybody Wants to Sin is Goldfrapp without the high heels, a shiver of delight to seduce the dancefloor. Every dancefloor. Everywhere.

Reviewing this Australian songwriter’s Aria-award-winning fifth album, 2015’s Eternal Return, I made reference to Olivia Newton-John. In particular, I feel that both singers have the ability to perform broken hearts that can help shatter and mend real ones, too. I wrote: “Her songwriting craft is so advanced, her grasp of pop so redolent, it is sometimes easy to forget how great a singer Blasko is.”

• Depth of Field by Sarah Blasko is out through EMI on 23 February

The Best Songs of 2018 (So Far)

It's never too early to find good music.

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Getty Images

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BY MATT MILLER

MAR 2, 2018

Congratulations, you've already taken the first step toward being ahead of the curve this year when it comes to new music. If you want to know the best new songs of 2018 before the year-end lists (or before all your friends are listening to them), then you've come to the right place. If you want to be the person saying, "Have you heard [insert good song here]?" then take a look at this ongoing list of our best songs of 2018. We'll be updating this all year, so keep checking back.

JANELLE MONAE — "MAKE ME FEEL"

Janelle Monae can do anything she wants. She can act in a Best Picture-winning film. She can be a pop star. She can make Afrofuturist funk. She can make elastic electro '80s R&B like "Make Me Feel"—a song that embraces all the sexual energy of Prince that you can almost feel those mouth noises mixed into to the beat.

SUPERCHUNK — "WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE"

How many times have we heard this phrase over the last year? But certainly no song has summed up this specific time more succinctly—and without mentioning a certain world leader's name—better than Superchunk. The anthemic title track from the new album is a cathartic collective observation on the state in which we currently find ourselves: "To see the rot in no disguise / Oh what a time to be alive / The scum, the shame, the fucking lies."

SOB X RBE — "LIFESTYLE"

There's a perfect balance at play on SOB X RBE tracks. Yhung T.O.'s seductive club choruses are the perfect packaging for forceful, dangerous verses. Take "Lifestyle" for example, where Yhung T.O. sings in the chorus, "I remember late nights all alone / I remember long talks with my cousin through her phone / RIP all of my niggas dead and gone / Give it all to bring you back and to bring my niggas home." It's followed by an opening verse from Slimmy B where he raps about people getting murdered at stoplights.

U.S. GIRLS — "ROSEBUD"

"What is your Rosebud, you've got to know," asks the chorus of U.S. Girls' "Rosebud." It may be a reference to Orson Welles's Citizen Kane, in which a sled named "Rosebud" represented the abandoned innocence and happiness of Charles Foster Kane. This song itself has a haunting vocal aspect to it, like half-forgotten memories are worming their way into your subconscious.

MORMOR — "HEAVEN'S ONLY WISHFUL"

In one of his few interviews, Toronto producer/singer MorMor told Pigeons and Planes that in school, "I kept searching for kids like me, but it never happened. In the end it gave me some good perspective." You can hear that solitude, that self-searching in his debut song, "Heaven's Only Wishful."

JPEGMAFIA — “MACAULAY CULKIN”

I’ll be the first to admit that JPEGMAFIA might not be for everyone. He embodies the true punk aesthetic of SoundCloud hip-hop. He’s artistically hyperactive—he’s already released three albums this year of frenetic lo-fi rap. These albums have songs like “I Cannot Fucking Wait Until Morrissey Dies” and “Libtard Anthem.” But beneath that abrasive provocateur is a compelling lyricist, and when he tones it down a bit, like on "Macaulay Culkin," that writing truly shines. Over a lost, melancholy guitar, he raps Orange is the New Black references and admits, “I play my albums front to back and make it feel important.”

HOP ALONG — “HOW SIMPLE”

Nearly three years ago, Vulture asked the question: “Is This the Best Voice in Rock Music Today?” in regards to Philadelphia rock act Hop Along. The answer then was yes—and it's a title that Hop Along’s Frances Quinlan still holds. It’s at once baffling and nimble, switching between a twangy yodel, a scratchy shriek, a natural coo, and an intimate whisper. This is a sound that absolutely not be created with any vocal effect or studio magic. Just watch a video, or better yet see Hop Along live to really believe what Quinlan can do. On the band’s latest track, it seems that producers have finally found the perfect way to capture her voice on record. Every nuance can be heard amid the cleanest sound Hop Along has had yet, and with some extra touches like layered vocal tracks and a touching string outro, it’s a song that hits all the emotions that Quinlan can reach in one breath.

TROYE SIVAN — “MY MY MY!”

It’s truly amazing to see a pop star emerge from relatively humble beginnings independent from the machine. That’s how Troye Sivan came into 2018: an openly gay 22-year-old Australian singer who had already built a dedicated online following through LGBTQ communities before even releasing his first single. “My My My!” is the first single from his upcoming sophomore album, which hints at what could be his first mainstream success. It’s an ‘80s-inspired pop exclamation full of life and synths. This is a refreshingly positive and simple message, and it’s a song that kicked off this music year on an all-around high. Things are gonna be good. Just keep this track on repeat.

MIGOS — “MADE MEN”

Migos didn’t hold anything back releasing Culture II on the anniversary of their groundbreaking major label debut. It’s a massive dump of 24 songs, which indicates that they could have maybe used some discretion while pairing down that final album. That’s precisely why there are a number of forgettable tracks, along with some truly great ones. Obvious standouts are the Pharrell-produced "Stir Fry" (which technically came out last year, so we can’t include it here) and “Made Men.” On the latter, the beat is a glittering and classy late-night boast. Taking the phrase from classic American mafia, Takeoff casually brags in his first verse, “Not Toby, but we slave for it / No Kunta Kinte, but we slave for it / I waited some days for it” in a brilliant Roots reference.

KALI UCHIS — “AFTER THE STORM”

Since the mid-2010s, Colombian-American singer Kali Uchis has been a familiar voice alongside the likes of Tyler, the Creator, Snoop Dogg, Miguel, and Snoop Dogg. Though so far she only has a lengthy nine-track EP to her name, she began 2018 with "After the Storm," which hopefully is an indication of more Uchis tracks to come this year. It’s a silky R&B jam, assisted by Tyler, the Creator and Bootsy Collins. If there is a storm, hopefully we can emerge like this song—calm, wise, and optimistic.

Ronnie Prophet, Country Music and Variety TV Star, Dies at 80

4:39 PM PST 3/2/2018 by Etan Vlessing

Rob Verhorst/Getty Images

Prophet hosted Canadian TV shows like 'The Ronnie Prophet Show' and 'Grand Ole Country,' while also performing in Nashville and Branson, Missouri.

Country music star Ronnie Prophet, a popular Canadian TV variety show host during the 1970s and '80s, on Friday died at his home in Florida following a heart attack. He was 80 years old.

"There are no words to express the heartache of losing my best friend and the love of my life.

Ronnie's sense of humor has sustained me through the years no matter the circumstances, even to the very last," Prophet's wife, fellow country singer Glory-Anne Prophet, said on her Facebook page.

Prophet established himself in Nashville at the Carousel Club in the 1970s and 1980s, and in more recent years was based in Branson, Missouri, where he and his wife performed their own country music and comedy show.

But he got his start in his native Canada, having been born Ronald Lawrence Victor Prophet in 1937 in Hawkesbury, Ontario. He was raised near Montreal on his family's farm in Calumet, Quebec.

After performing at local clubs as a youth, Prophet made his debut in Ottawa on CFRA's country music show, The Happy Wanderers. He then appeared at Montreal nightclubs in the 1960s before moving to Nashville in 1969.

Back in Canada, Prophet earned Juno Awards in 1978 and 1979 as country male vocalist of the year, and he hosted Canadian TV shows like The Ronnie Prophet Show, Grand Ole Country, Rocky Mountain Inn and Ronnie 'n' the Browns.

As a recording artist, Prophet recorded around 25 albums, and five of his singles in the 1970s reached the Billboard country charts.

"Inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame in 1999, Ronnie will always be an icon for Canadian country music," the Canadian Country Music Association said on its Twitter account.

[Edited 3/7/18 9:08am]

Just Music-No Categories-Enjoy It!

- E-mail - orgNote -

Reply #5 posted 03/07/18 9:09am

HBO's Vinyl History: The ...d The King

Eric B & Rakim Reuniting for U.S. Tour

'Paid in Full' rappers announce 18 dates for first trek in two decades

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Hip-hop icons Eric B & Rakim are reuniting for a 2018 U.S. tour – their first full-scale run in two decades. Waring Abbott/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

By Ryan Reed

14 minutes ago

Eric B & Rakim announced a U.S. spring reunion tour, marking the hip-hop duo's first full-scale trek in two decades. The group posted a since-deleted tweet with the dates on Monday; however, a rep for Rakim told Rolling Stone that the shows are "100 percent confirmed."

The 18-date tour launches April 8th in Boston and concludes May 3rd in San Francisco. The upcoming run follows the group's one-off reunion show at H...lo Theater in July 2017, which celebrated the 30th anniversary of their landmark debut LP, 1987's Paid in Full. The duo performed the entire album during their set, which featured guest spots from EPMD, Main Source, Flavor Fav, Ma$e, Ice-T, Roxanne Shante, Maino and T La Rock, among others.

Eric B announced plans for an ex...ve reunion with Rakim in October 2016, but a tour didn't materialize at the time. The duo also teased plans to remaster all four of their albums and film new videos for classic songs like "I Ain't No Joke" and "Paid in Full." Last year, they reissued Paid in Full on "money green" vinyl.

The seeds of the reunion date back to July 2016, when Eric B. attended Rakim's benefit show for the Universal Hip Hop Museum in Newark, New Jersey – the first time in years they'd been in the same room.

Eric B & Rakim Tour Dates

April 8 - Boston, MA @ House Of Blues
April 10 - New York, NY @ Irving Plaza
April 11 - Philadelphia, PA @ Theatre Of Living Arts
April 12 - Huntington, NY @ The Paramount
April 15 - Wallingford, CT @ The Dome
April 17 - Washington, DC @ The Fillmore Silver Spring
April 18 - Baltimore, MD @ Sound Stage
April 19 - Raleigh, NC @ The Ritz
April 20 - Charlotte, NC @ The Fillmore Charlotte
April 22 - Atlanta, GA @ Tabernacle
April 24 - Houston, TX @ House Of Blues
April 25 - Dallas, TX @ The Bomb Factory
April 26 - Denver, CO @ Fillmore Auditorium
April 28 - Las Vegas, NV @ House Of Blues
April 29 - Anaheim, CA @ House Of Blues
April 30 - San Diego, CA @ House Of Blues
May 2 - Los Angeles, CA @ Belasco Theater
May 3 - San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore

David Bowie, Prince and Courtney Barnett among Record Store Day exclusive releases

The annual celebration of independent record shops takes place on 21 April, with the usual sought-after limited vinyl editions

Laura Snapes

Tue 6 Mar 2018 13.00 ESTLast modified on Tue 6 Mar 2018 13.44 EST

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Exclusives … Prince, David Bowie and Courtney Barnett. Composite: Frank Micelotta/Terry O'Neill/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

The organisers of Record Store Day have announced the exclusive vinyl releases for this year’s celebration of independent record shops. The list features four David Bowie records, including his self-titled album, a double LP set including mono and stereo versions; a heavyweight 12in single of the previously unreleased full-length demo of Let’s Dance; the first commercial release of Now, a rare 1977 US-only compilation; and WTTB, another previously unreleased three-LP live album recorded by long-term producer Tony Visconti at London’s Earl’s Court in 1978.

Among other rarities on offer are Prince’s 1999 available on vinyl for the first time since 1983, a Cure compilation with 16 new mixes by Robert Smith, and Bobbie Gentry Live at the BBC, released for the first time ever. Arcade Fire will issue their self-titled EP from 2002 for the first time on vinyl, and the Nationalcommemorate their 2007 album Boxer with a front-to-back live rendition recorded in concert in Brussels in 2017.

Several artists will use the occasion to debut material from their forthcoming albums: Australian songwriter Courtney Barnett previews her second album, Tell Me How You Really Feel, with the double A-side City Looks Pretty and Sunday Roast. New York indie-rockers Parquet Courts release Monologue from their new record, Wide Awake, Julian Casablancas’s band the Voidz share Qyurryus/Cool As, and dream-pop band Belly will release Feel, a four-track release featuring two songs from their new album, Dove, along with two other unreleased tracks.

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1999 revisited ... Prince performing in 1985. Photograph: Sipa Press/REX/Shutterstock

Other enticing curios include The First 48 Inches of Frankie Goes to Hollywood, a box set containing the first four 12in singles from the Liverpool band’s debut album, 1984’s Welcome to the Pleasuredome; Sufjan Stevens’ Mystery of Love EP, featuring his contributions to Luca Guadagnino’s film Call Me By Your Name; and comedian Adam Sandler’s 1993 debut album, They’re All Gonna Laugh at You!.

There are the usual esoteric curveballs too: a special 7in release of Shaggy’s Oh Carolina on its 25th anniversary, Japan frontman David Sylvian’s fifth solo album, Dead Bees on a Cake, available on white vinyl for the first time, and Pornosonic: Unreleased 70s Porn Music ft Ron Jeremy, a collection of ersatz porn movie themes featuring narration from the renowned adult actor.

Record Store Day 2018 takes place on 21 April, with more than 240 shops participating in the UK – the highest number in the event’s 11-year history. This year’s RSD ambassadors are hip-hop duo Run the Jewels.

Herbie Hancock Taps Kendrick Lamar, Thundercat for New Album

Flying Lotus, Kamasi Washington, Wayne Shorter also contributing to jazz great's first LP since 2010

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Herbie Hancock, Kendrick Lamar Michael Bowles/REX Shutterstock, Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP/REX Shutterstock

By Jon Blistein

18 hours ago

Herbie Hancock's next album will feature an array of guests including Kendrick Lamar, Thundercat, Flying Lotus and Snoop Dogg, The San Diego Union-Tribune reports.

Hear a track from the upcoming debut by Kendrick Lamar collaborator's diverse L.A. collective the Pollyseeds

“I'm learning a lot from the young people I'm working with," Hancock said. He added, "I never want to stop learning. And I'm not even thinking in terms of: 'I'll do this record, get it out there, promote it, do some concerts, and then at some point I'll work on the next record.' These days, you can put out two tracks, then something a little later that’s connected to the other two. So where you draw the line is up to the artist. It's a new day."

The 77-year-old musician is also collaborating with artists leading the new jazz vanguard, like saxophonist Kamasi Washington and keyboardist and saxophonist Terrace Martin. Martin is producing the as-yet-untitled record, and over the past decade, he's bolstered his jazz playing with production work for artists like Lamar, Snoop Dogg, YG, Travis Scott and Talib Kweli. In an interview with Rolling Stone , Martin noted that the collection of musicians working on Hancock's new album also included Robert Glasper and Derrick Hodge.

Wayne Shorter – the saxophone legend and Hancock's former bandmate in the Miles Davis Quintet – has also been involved with the record, as have West African guitarist Lionel Loueke and acclaimed Indian tabla player Zakir Hussain.

"I want to make records that point toward the concept of bringing people together and working toward encouraging people to aspire to be global citizens, and not just American citizens, or Italian citizens or Japanese citizens," Hancock said. "To be global, or world, citizens is vital. Because that's what we'll be facing in the future and this whole thing of pitting one country against another – that stuff has to die."

Hancock's next album will mark his first since 2010's The Imagine Project.

Elvis Presley: The Searcher Trailer for New HBO Documentary Drops

HBO’s upcoming documentary Elvis Presley: The Searcher breaks down the king of rock and roll’s chops.

Elvis Presley couldn’t read music and had no formal training, but he was a student of music. Best known for accompanying his versatile baritone voice on a six-string acoustic guitar, Presley knew his way around four strings to lay down the electric bass part to the song “(You’re So Square) Baby I Don’t Care” for the Jailhouse Rock soundtrack. The new documentary for HBO, Elvis Presley: The Searcher, promises to explore his creative journey. The score was composed by Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready.

Elvis Presley: The Searcher is a three-hour, two-film presentation that includes interviews with Scotty Moore, Red West, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, and Priscilla Presley talking about the artistic and personal struggles that preceded Presley’s death in 1977. The documentary focuses on Presley the musical artist, from his childhood through the final 1976 Jungle Roomrecording sessions.

As previously announced by SXSW, Priscilla Presley, David Porter (legendary Memphis music writer and producer), Thom Zimny (director), Jon Landau (producer) and moderator John Jackson (SVP A&R, Sony Music) will discuss the film, the cultural impact of Elvis’ music and how that impact became the embodiment of rock’n’roll at the 2018 SXSW Festival in March.

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The documentary will explore how Elvis was inspired by in black and white gospel music of Tupelo, Mississippi, and his early experience with African-American blues and r’n’b of Memphis. It will also track his evolution as an artist with Sun Studios producer Sam Phillips. When Elvis joined the army, most people thought rock and roll lost a voice, but Elvis Presley: The Searcherproves he didn’t stop learning his trade while serving in Germany.HBO dropped the official trailer for the upcoming HBO documentary Elvis Presley: The Searcher. The three-hour, two-film presentation debuts Saturday, April 14 at 8 p.m.

The films will chart the creative highs and lows of his career in the 1960s, culminating in the triumphant ’68 special, and assess his performing career in the early ’70s. They include stunning atmospheric shots taken inside Graceland, Elvis’ iconic home. The documentary also features never-before-seen photos and footage from private collections.

Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment, and RCA Records will release Elvis Presley: The Searcher (The Original Soundtrack) on Friday, April 6. The soundtrack includes the 18 essential Elvis Presley hits, powerful performances, and rare alternative versions of songs at the musical core of the groundbreaking three-hour two-part film which focuses on the development of Elvis' spellbinding artistry, from his early blues and country roots and influences through his seismic contributions to popular culture to his 1976 recording sessions at the Jungle Room in Graceland. The soundtrack’s deluxe edition includes selections from Pearl Jam's Mike McCready's Original Score plus the songs that influenced Elvis.

Elvis Presley: The Searcher Trailer

HBO dropped the official trailer for the upcoming HBO documentary Elvis Presley: The Searcher. You can watch it below:

Elvis Presley: The Searcher Release Date

RCA/Legacy Recordings, a division of Sony Music Entertainment, will release Elvis Presley: The Searcher, the musical companion to the HBO/Sony Pictures documentary, on Friday, April 6.

Check out the poster...

elvis-presley-searcher_0.jpg?itok=NYQm37Md

Elvis Presley: The Searcher debuts Saturday, April 14 at 8:00 p.m. ET.

Sarah McKenzie – Paris In The Rain – A Review (more or less)

I’ve previously praised the young Australian singer Sarah McKenzie for her last album on Impulse, We Could Be Lovers, have seen her perform live, and mentioned her in my Top 10 Jazz Covers of Pop songs. I was even able to exchange a couple of friendly words with her during the above mentioned concert.

So in a nutshell, I really like her. Hence, when I saw on Facebook that she is about to release a new album, I gotvery excited.

(Side note: following artists I like is one of the few useful purposes for me of Facebook. Why is it that in my generation the only people that regularly post updates are the ones you don’t care about? There seems to be some form of inverse correlation between posting activity and content value, with some rare exceptions)

Paris In the Rain (Impulse 2017)

So, now the album has been out for weeks, and I’m only just about now writing about it.

0060255728252_600.jpg?w=840

Why is that? Well, not because I didn’t listen to it enough. The thing is, I was really trying to like it, but in a way something was just a bit wrong. And I spent the last month trying to put my finger on it.

Is it the singing? Absolutely not, that’s beautiful as ever.

Is it the songs? No, we get standards, like Tea For Two, beautiful ballads, like Little Girl Blue, own compositions such as Paris in the Rain, see below (she also has 4 other own compositions on the album!).

Is it the musicians? Again, not really. Actually, they do play extremely well. Sarah and Impulse were able to assemble some great musicians here: Mark Whitfield und Romero Lubambo on guitar, Warren Wolf on the vibraphone, Reuben Rogers on bass, Gregory Hutchinson on drums.

The horns are excellent too, from Dominick Farinacci on the trumpet, Jamie Baum on the flute, to Scott Robinson and Ralph Moore on saxphone.

So what is it? It was only when I read that this album was produced again (like the previous one) by Brian Bacchus, when the penny dropped. It is just a bit too perfect! That may sound a bit silly, but the album could use a little bit of “dirtiness” to my ears.

Bacchus, while not a household name, has worked with some of the greatest names in Jazz (e.g. John Scofield). However, he also produced Norah Jones and Gregory Porter. Not that I’m comparing this album to Norah Jones, unlike her this is 100% Jazz, but you get the total perfection of a Norah Jones album. This really doesn’t fully replicate the full energy I felt when I saw her live. I’d really love it if her next album will be a live one!

So why I strongly encourage you to check out this album, I’d even more recommend you see her live. As mentioned, she’s on facebook, and here’s her website that has the tour dates.

My rating: 4 stars

You can find the album here (Qobuz) and here (Prostudiomasters).

[Edited 3/7/18 9:48am]

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Reply #6 posted 03/08/18 5:54am

Identity	Beach House (Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally) Share Psychedelic Visual for “Dive”. Beach House has officially announced that the new album, titled 7 , is due out May 11 via Sub Pop.
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Reply #7 posted 03/08/18 2:38pm

Image result for janelle monáe and rosario dawson

HAPPY WOMEN’S DAY INDEED. This woman is one of our generation’s great lights and leaders and I adore her message and her spirit. Oh, also she sings pretty good too. 🤪 Thank you @aliciakeys for being bold and honest and powerful and a believer in truth. Yes to you. And yes to all you ladies out there in the army of love. Let’s do this. ❤️🙏🏽🌌💕

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Reply #8 posted 03/08/18 5:17pm

Identity	Soul artist Gizelle Smith is back with a new song, "Sweet Memories".
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Reply #9 posted 03/11/18 9:24am

En Vogue on New Album 'Electric Cafe': 'We Finally Got the Right Deal'

2/22/2018 by Gail Mitchell

En Vogue is back -- well, technically the iconic '90s girl group behind No. 1 hits such as “Hold On,” “My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It)” and “Don’t Let Go (Love)” never left. In fact, members Cindy Herron-Braggs, Terry Ellis and Rhona Bennett are preparing for the second leg of a European tour that launched last year. But this time the trio will be toting along something new: their first studio album in 14 years.

Electric Café formally arrives on March 30, the maiden release of En Vogue Records through Entertainment One Music. Available for pre-order on all major digital providers, the set embraces a wide swath of influences from contemporary R&B/hip-hop, soul and funk to pop, rock and electronic dance. Soaring throughout the album’s 11 tracks: the ladies’ still pristine harmonies. Leading the pack is first single “Rocket.” Written by Ne-Yo and produced by Curtis “Sauce” Wilson (Drake, Celine Dion, Ne-Yo), the romantic ballad jets from No. 18 to No. 13 on Billboard’s Adult R&B Songs tally for the week of Feb. 24.

En Vogue’s last studio release was the 2004 indie album Soul Flower. Remarking on the group’s creative mind-set after a yearslong recording hiatus, original founding member Ellis remarks with a laugh, “It was Lord, have mercy! We finally got the right partnership/distribution deal and the right combination of songs. Then we finally had the opportunity to do this the way we wanted to without others getting in the way of our creative mix.”

Initially planned as an EDM record, Electric Café wound its way through other routes that fellow founding member Herron-Braggs describes as “electric soul” and “punk soul.” In addition to Ne-Yo and Sauce, the group worked with artist/writer/producer Raphael Saadiq, producer Dem Jointz (Rihanna, Janet Jackson) and songwriter Taura Stinson (also up for a best original song Academy Award with Mary J. Blige and Saadiq for “Mighty River” from the film Mudbound). But the “signature EV sound,” notes Herron-Braggs “remains the through line.” And that’s thanks to the group’s longtime producers/mentors, Denzil Foster and Thomas McElroy, whose contributions include the album’s opening songs, “Déjà Vu” and “Blue Skies.”

It was Foster and McElroy who held auditions in the late ‘80s for a potential girl group, part of a three-act deal the pair had with Atlantic Records. At the time, there were only a few female groups of note like Exposé, the Jones Girls and Sweet Obsession. While the producers originally envisioned a trio, Foster and McElroy changed their minds once they heard Ellis, Herron (Braggs), Maxine Jones and Dawn Robinson.

After making their debut on the producers’ own 1989 album FM², the group charted a year later with its own aforementioned No. 1 R&B/No. 2 pop hit “Hold On” from debut album Born to Sing. Counting Electric Café, their discography totals seven albums and additional hits like “You Don’t Have to Worry,” “Giving Him Something He Can Feel,” “Free Your Mind,” “Whatever” and their guest feature on Salt-N-Pepa’s “Whatta Man”—which in turn helped garner seven Grammy nominations and seven MTV Video Music Awards.

Courtesy Photo

En Vogue, "Electric Cafe"

A trio now with the departure of Robinson and Jones, the current lineup includes longtime associate Bennett. A former Mouseketeer with the likes of Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera and Britney Spears, Bennett’s first stint with the group began in 2003. She’s been a permanent member since 2012. Of the new album, she notes, “I hope fans will listen and just go ‘wow. It feels good and it sounds like they had a good time recording it.’”

Averaging between 60-70 dates a year, En Vogue begins the second leg of its European tour on April 2 in Dublin, Ireland. That will be followed by shows throughout the U.K., Holland and Germany. Then it’s back to the U.S. to perform on syndicated radio personality Tom Joyner’s 2018 Fantastic Voyage cruise (April 29-May 6) along with the O’Jays, Babyface, Anita Baker, Chris Brown, Tamar Braxton, SWV and more.

Jazzed by the re-emergence of ‘90s peers such as Xscape3, 112, After 7 and Bell Biv DeVoe plus the artistry of contemporaries like Bruno Mars, Kendrick Lamar, Ledisi and Chance the Rapper, En Vogue doesn’t foresee a reality show or biopic in its immediate future. However, declares Ellis to the others’ laughter, “We are open to the right un-ratcheted situation.”

In the meantime, the ladies’ cultural influence is being displayed another way. The red gowns worn in the video for “Giving Him Something He Can Feel” are currently on loan to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture—the only girl group to be so featured thus far.

As for how En Vogue would like its aural legacy to be remembered, the members agree with a list that Ellis ticks off, including “passion and love for what we do, respect for what each person brings to the table, self-empowerment, amazing vocalists and uplifting role models.” Herron-Braggs also references the slogan on a bracelet she recently received from a friend. “It says, ‘She said she wanted to do it, so she did,’” says Herron-Braggs. “And that encapsulates what En Vogue is about.”

Estate-Approved Whitney Houston Documentary Gets Official Release Date

3/9/2018 by Rania Aniftos

Whitney, the documentary that will dive into most personal aspects of music icon Whitney Houston’s life and career officially has a release date. The flick will be released in the United States, United Kingdom and Ireland on July 6, as announced Friday (Mar. 9) by Roadside Attractions presidents Howard Cohen and Eric d’Arbeloff and Miramax CEO Bill Block.

The film will reveal details about the late singer’s life, filled with live performances from her past, unreleased tracks and home footage. Additionally, Whitney will feature original studio recordings of her biggest hits.

Director Kevin MacDonald had approval of Houston’s legendary estate to access its archives, noting in a statement: "I approached Whitney’s life like a mystery story; why did someone with so much raw talent and beauty self-destruct so publicly and painfully? I was lucky enough to have the support of Pat Houston and the Whitney Houston estate in this quest. They entrusted me with the ‘keys to the vault’ while giving me complete freedom to follow the story wherever it went. At heart, Whitney is an intimate family story that reveals a new side to a woman that even her most die-hard fans never knew."

The release comes one year after the Showtime doc Whitney: Can I Be, which was publicly denounced by the estate.

Kate Nash Announces New Album 'Yesterday Was Forever'

Check out new song 'Drink About You'...

ROBIN MURRAY

NEWS

02 · 02 · 2018

Kate Nash is set to release new album 'Yesterday Was Forever' on March 30th.

The songwriter is operating independently, and ran a Kickstarter campaign last year to fuel new album sessions.

It's been a huge success, with Kate Nash planning to release new material later in the year.

Upcoming album 'Yesterday Was Forever' drops on March 30th, and it's seemingly a reference to her adolescence.

She explains: "'Yesterday Was Forever' is an excerpt from a teenage diary. I used to be mocked for being a silly little girl writing in her teenage diary, but these days I feel like the teenage girl is far more respected than she use to be and it’s teenage girls that have fought for that and taught people that lesson."

"'Yesterday Was Forever' is your dreams being trapped in a time capsule, being caught in a moment for too long, and looking back through heart shaped glasses. The tour will include and celebrate music from 'Made Of Bricks', 'My Best Friend Is You', 'Girl Talk' and the new album ‘Yesterday Was Forever'."

New song 'Drink About You' is online now, and it traces the "unhealthy obsession" that can follow a break up.

James Bay Announces New Album 'Electric Light'

Check out new song 'Pink Lemonade'...

ROBIN MURRAY

NEWS

07 · 03 · 2018

James Bay has announced plans for new album 'Electric Light'.

The songwriter's vastly successful debut established a certain formula, one he seems to veer away from on this new record.

Constructed in East London's Baltic Studios, the singer worked alongside Jon Green and Paul Epworth to construct the material.

He comments: “If I had to describe my first album visually it would probably be a flame - while this new album is about a real sonic and artistic evolution for me. The feeling of a 100 watt bulb expanding and brightening is what I envisioned. Electric Light came to my mind and I knew it was perfect.”

'Electric Light' drops on May 18th, with James Bay set to make his Saturday Night Live debut at the weekend.

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Reply #10 posted 03/12/18 9:38am

Cupid - The Very Best Of Sam Cooke 1961-1962 [ORIGINAL RECORDINGS REMASTERED]

By far the most important and influential Gospel and secular R&B singer of his era, honey-voiced Sam Cooke is universally acknowledged as "The man who invented Soul". This compilation presents all eight singles plus the standout tracks from his five LPs issued during 1961-1962, a period during which Cooke was particularly prolific, and hit his first creative peak. It is the follow-up to an earlier Jasmine compilation, 'Wonderful World' (JASCD152), which traced Cooke's career from 1957-1960. Includes a number of his biggest, career-defining hits, notably "That's It - I Quit - I'm Moving On", "Cupid", "Twistin' The Night Away", "Bring It On Home To Me", "Havin' A Party", "Nothing Can Change This Love", "Somebody Have Mercy" and "Send Me Some Lovin'". Also includes his rarest-ever 45rpm release, "Just For You/Made For Me". both sides are hard to find elsewhere on CD.

Audio CD (February 9, 2018)
Number of Discs: 1
Format: Import
Label: Jasmine Music

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. That's It - I Quit - I'm Moving on

2. What Do You Say

3. Pray

4. Goin' Home

5. Cupid

6. Farewell My Darling

7. Feel It

8. It's All Right

9. Nobody Knows When You're Down and Out

10. Baby, Won't You Please Come Home

11. You're Always on My Mind

12. Just for You

13. Made for Me

14. Twistin' the Night Away

15. One More Time

16. Talkin' Trash

17. Sugar Dumpling

18. Twistin' in the Kitchen with Dinah

19. A Whole Lotta Woman

20. Movin' and A-Groovin'

21. Soothe Me

22. Bring It on Home to Me

23. Having aParty

24. Nothing Can Change This Love

25. Somebody Have Mercy

26. I'm Gonna Forget About You

27. Send Me Some Lovin'

28. Baby, Baby, Baby

29. Chains of Love

30. Driftin' Blues

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Reply #11 posted 03/13/18 6:26pm

Missy Higgins Announces New Album ‘Solastalgia’

Written by Emmy Mack on 12th February, 2018

National treasure Missy Higgins has some big news. She’s got a new album coming out.

Higgo’s fifth studio album is dubbed Solastalgia, and is slated for release in early May. It marks her first original LP in six long years, and is also set to see the songstress experiment with a new, more electronic sound.

“There’s so much inspiring music being made out there in people’s bedrooms on their computers”, says Missy. “I wanted to see what sounds and beats we could conjure out of the electronic ether, and then try to wrap some stories and traditional instruments around them. It’s a huge journey, this album.”

The record is headed up by the quirky first single ‘Futon Couch’, which Missy reveals is named after the piece of furniture she was sitting on when she first met her husband.

“This is the happiest song on the record, so I wanted to start with it”, she says. “It’s not often I write a straight-out, ‘f**k it I love you’ song.

Related image

“It is the story of me meeting my husband in Broome, Western Australia. He was my good friend’s housemate and one day he walked into the living room where I was waiting for my friend. I sat on the Futon Couch making small-talk with him while he did the dishes and I thought, ‘Where did THIS guy come from and why is he so lovely and how can I surreptitiously arrange to hang out with him more?’

“After that day, I popped round for tea at my friend’s house way more often. We fell in love. We sang ‘I Was Made For Lovin’ You’ together at our friend’s wedding the following week and a few years later, I walked down the aisle towards him. This single tracks the beginning of our relationship and follows it into an unknown future.”

CHVRCHES announce new album, Love Is Dead, share Matt Berninger-featuring “My Enemy”: Stream

Glasgow synthpop trio returns in May with their third full-length effort

BY ALEX YOUNG

ON FEBRUARY 28, 2018, 12:17PM

CHVRCHES, photo by Danny Clinch

Glasgow synthpop trio CHVRCHES have confirmed the release of their third full-length album. Entitled Love Is Dead, the 13-track effort is due out on May 25th through Glassnote Records. It follows CHVRCHES’s 2015 sophomore LP, Every Open Eye.

Love Is Dead is an album about growing up and “coming to terms with the fact that there are great things in the world and there are awful things in the world and that you can’t get one without the other,” explains frontwoman Lauren Mayberry.

Adds bandmate Iain Cook: “We’re fucked, the world is fucked. But there’s an ellipses at the end. It’s Love Is Dead. Like, how did we get to this point? And how do we move on from this point? It’s Love Is Dead, we’re fucked, what’s next?”

Grammy Award-winning producer Greg Kurstin helmed nine of the album’s 13 tracks, marking the first time the band worked with an outside producer. The National frontman Matt Berninger also contributed, as he sings on the newly revealed single, “My Enemy”. Listen below.

CHVRCHES previously previewed Love Is Dead with the track “Get Out”. Check out the new album’s artwork and tracklist below.

Love Is Dead Artwork:

chvrches love is dead CHVRCHES announce new album, Love Is Dead, share Matt Berninger featuring My Enemy: Stream

Love Is Dead Tracklist:
01. Graffiti
02. Get Out
03. Deliverance
04. My Enemy
05. Forever
06. Never Say Die
07. Miracle
08. Graves
09. Heaven/Hell
10. God’s Plan
11. Really Gone
12. ii
13. Wonderland

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Reply #12 posted 03/14/18 8:24am

Identity	Pearl Jam Releases First Original Song in Six Years Pearl Jam's new track from their forthcoming album on Monkeywrench/Republic Records is out now. “Can’t Deny Me” was co-produced by Pearl Jam and Brendan O'Brien. The track was recorded in Seattle last month and released as a surprise early download.
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Reply #13 posted 03/15/18 5:20am

Identity	Arcade Fire’s New “Money + Love” Short Film.
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Reply #14 posted 03/15/18 10:38am

Identity	London-based artist Cleo Sol. “Why Don’t You” is from her debut EP, Winter Songs.
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Reply #15 posted 03/15/18 6:47pm

Listen & Buy:https://itunes.apple.com/...1347190424

1521066677_ob_bc2cc4_0628ead8-2477-4666-854b-8771656ec81d.jpg?0b9a3c

Tracklist:
01 – Middle of Nowhere
02 – Guilty
03 – Meadow
04 – Just a Little Lie
05 – Six Eight
06 – Thought She’d Be Mine
07 – Roll Me Under
08 – Never Enough
09 – The Art of Letting Go
10 – Finest Hour
11 – Good Shoes
12 – Red & Blues

Laura-Pausini-320x320.jpg?0b9a3c

Tracklist:

01 – Non Š detto
02 – Nuevo
03 – La soluzione
04 – E.STA.A.TE
05 – Frasi a met…
06 – Le due finestre
07 – Fantastico (Fai quello che sei)
08 – No River is Wilder
09 – L’ultima cosa che ti devo
10 – Un progetto di vita in comune
11 – Il caso Š chiuso
12 – Zona d’ombra
13 – Francesca (Piccola aliena)
14 – Il coraggio di andare

[Edited 3/15/18 18:53pm]

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Reply #16 posted 03/15/18 8:49pm

MickyDolenz

avatar

Monte Moir interview {March 2018}

You can take a black guy to Nashville from right out of the cotton fields with bib overalls, and they will call him R&B. You can take a white guy in a pin-stripe suit who’s never seen a cotton field, and they will call him country. ~ O. B. McClinton

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Reply #17 posted 03/19/18 7:56am

Continue reading the main story

Thanks everybody for your contributions to this thread.

Meshell Ndegeocello

Ventriloquism

NAÏVE

• 2018

7.8

by Brad Nelson
Contributor

POP/R&B

MARCH 17 2018

Tackling a range of R&B radio hits from the 1980s and 1990s, Meshell Ndegeocello treats the practice of covering another’s songs as an act of intimacy and empathy.

Some songs are rooms within rooms, vast interconnected musical systems. Meshell Ndegeocello gets this; many of her own compositions end at a considerable distance from where they began, teleporting freely from chord to chord. But Ndegeocello understands that songs can also be rooms unto themselves. Sometimes they are even less than a room—they can be a closet, or a corner.

Over the last 25 years Ndegeocello has merged soul, rock, and hip-hop to make a kind of R&B that is at once cerebral and interstellar. She has devoted space on each of her last three studio albums to taking another artist’s song and bending it into new configurations, inverting its structure, seeing how much she might alter its appearance without disturbing its inner grooves. She doesn’t perform these songs as much as she renovates them from surface to center, peeling away wallpaper, pushing furniture around, crumpling and discarding any unnecessary dimensional space until she figures out what kind of room the song is.

Almost 10 years ago, during the sessions for her 2009 album Devil’s Halo, she revisited Ready for the World’s crystalline slow jam “Love You Down.” The original recording of the song is a lovely and faithful replica of a slow-motion Prince ballad; it delivers itself to the listener as a shelf of dry ice delivers fog into the air. For her own version, Ndegeocello shaved down all of the fog and extra space and filled it with silence. Then she shaved the vocal itself down, carving a soft, defeated sigh from Melvin Riley’s shivery tenor. She ruthlessly edited out every unnecessary gesture, removed every distraction and ornament until only the original feeling remained. A desperate plea disintegrated into a whisper; a room was reduced to a corner. As a result, the “Love You Down” that appears on Devil’s Halo occupies an extremely narrow and tender inch of emotional space.

Ndegeocello’s newest record, Ventriloquism, adds 11 new R&B and R&B-adjacent covers to her catalog; in its song selection, it examines a period of music from 1982 to 1994, during which the genre expanded and contracted itself into several different forms—disco shrank down into boogie, new jack swing slit electro-funk into narrow strips and stapled them back together out of order. The songs Ndegeocello studies on Ventriloquism aren’t deep cuts. They’re radio hits, some of which crossed over and most of which still radiate softly in throwback quiet-storm playlists. Ndegeocello refrains from adjusting the pronouns in her covers, so the songs written by men for male singers generally end up queerer than they started—the sensibility that inspired her to preserve the lyric “All that really mattered was you were my girrrlfriend” in “Love You Down” is also felt in her cover of Ralph Tresvant’s “Sensitivity”: “You need a man with sensitivity/A man like me.” (“Sensitivity” is one of three songs on the record, along with the Force MD’s “Tender Love” and Janet Jackson’s “Funny How Time Flies (Whe...aving Fun),” that were written by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, who at one point in the 1980s were on the verge of fusing R&B and synth pop forever.)

The greater transformations on the record are structural, as on Al B. Sure!’s “Nite and Day,” a breezy, fluttery new jack swing song that Ndegeocello converts into an ocean. She softens the hits of percussion until they glow and tremble like distant beacons. Without the discrete drum-machine thwacks establishing the song’s boundaries, it flows shapelessly into the space beyond them. It’s as if Ndegeocello picked up on the song’s inner buoyancy, tore out its floor, and installed a pool.

Covers, when they surface over the course of an album or an artist’s career, may seem unnecessarily digressive—light filler, in other words—or even opportunistic; how better to add a sense of legitimacy to your project than by quoting someone who already passed through the same territory? But as soon as you begin to sing someone else’s song, there are innumerable unconscious and invisible adaptations that the song must immediately go through. How can you convey an established idea with a different voice, different instruments, different sensibilities, in a different time and space? How do the words of a song change when, instead of being sung, they are spoken, or whispered?

Some of the covers on Ventriloquism are as cubist in approach as Ndegeocello’s “Love You Down.” Her version of “Sensitivity” seems to have spliced in some DNA from the Beatles’ “Wild Honey Pie,” particularly in the insistent, arthritic banjo strum that underpins the chorus; her cover of Sade’s “Smooth Operator” sounds as if she knocked the song to the ground just to see what fractals would form when it shattered. Her cover of TLC’s “Waterfalls” most directly realizes the ambitions of the album’s title, of Ndegeocello trying to reanimate compositions and characters she didn’t originally design. The song’s primary bass riff is rerouted through an acoustic guitar; the rest of the arrangement gradually paints itself around Ndegeocello’s voice. What sort of room is “Waterfalls”? Well, it’s probably an island, maybe even a particularly isolated neighborhood—it could function as any shrunken microcosm of society. Ndegeocello swivels between the different perspectives embedded in the lyrics, sinking through each window of the neighborhood: a mother who can’t reach her son; a son who is murdered in the midst of a drug deal; a pair of lovers, one of whom has inadvertently transmitted AIDS to the other. “I’m so sorry I hurt you so much,” she sings as the boy. His words are immediately countered by his mother: “Can’t keep yourself out of trouble,” Ndegeocello repeats gnomically, as if sighing and shaking her head at the meaningless circularity of the scene, the way these individual human dramas continually replay themselves on radio and in reality.

The most striking variation on the record is one in which Ndegeocello’s adjustments are minor but mood-expanding. Her recording of “Sometimes It Snows in April” is relatively faithful to Prince’s original; it merely transposes the notes Prince played on the piano, each of which sounded gently stirred out of sleep, to the electric guitar, which makes the song not only blurrier but somehow lonelier. “April” is a different song now. It changed when it migrated from Prince’s mind to the piano, and it changed again when Prince died almost two years ago. When I listen to it now, it sounds like a monument to a suddenly blank space. Ndegeocello’s cover is first and foremost a recording of this change. “Always cry for love,” she sings, and then her voice drops, loosening from the rhythm of the verse and slowing into speech, as if the song were too painful to resume singing. “Never cry for pain,” she says, her voice crumbled into a trembling husk. Throughout the length of Ventriloquism, in Ndegeocello’s hands, no cover is ever mere lip service. A cover is an act of scholarship, an act of criticism, an act of intimacy. An act of love.

South by Southwest Music Festival: 17 Acts That Stood Out

By JON PARELES MARCH 18, 2018

Clockwise from top left: Tarriona Ball of Tank and the Bangas, the Weather Station, Lingua Franca, La Cuneta Son Machín, Shame, Superorganism, and fans of Mallrat at South by Southwest in Austin, Tex. CreditPhotographs by Roger Kisby for The New York Times

AUSTIN, Tex. — Even past its peak, the annual South by Southwest Music Festival was a prodigious thing, with some 2,000 acts performing in Austin’s clubs, theaters, hotels and parking lots from March 12 through Sunday. This year’s festival, the 32nd, didn’t have any arena-circuit headliner or overbearing corporate sponsorships, reflecting a dwindling recording business. But that just helped level the playing field for the performers — Austin mainstays, international visitors, punks from multiple generations, singer-songwriters, even some SoundCloud rappers — who still flock to SXSW in hopes of being discovered or getting a boost.

No one listener can choose a definitive “best of” SXSW; even in day-and-night concertgoing, it’s impossible to hear more than a small percentage of the performers. Here are 17 acts that stood out this year.

Billie Eilish at Fader Fort on Wednesday. CreditRoger Kisby for The New York Times

BILLIE EILISH This 16-year-old singer has a misty, sleepy voice that can take on a jazzy quaver — part Lana Del Rey, part Amy Winehouse — and she sings about romance as a continuum of desire and combativeness: “I’ll sit and watch your car burn with the fire that you started in me.” Onstage, there was absolutely nothing complaisant about her. As her band played folk-pop tinged with some hip-hop brittleness, Ms. Eilish strolled, slouched and crooned with precisely gauged insolence and nonchalance.

Tarriona Ball of Tank and the Bangas at the Gatsby on Thursday. CreditRoger Kisby for The New York Times

TANK AND THE BANGAS In New Orleans, music is forged in live performance, savoring the immediate effect on a club crowd and sprawling beyond the confines of radio-ready pop. Tank and the Bangas string together grooves from funk, hip-hop, rock and gospel; serious storytelling, self-empowerment exhortations and dance instructions share the band’s exuberant stream of consciousness.

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La Cuneta Son Machín at Flamingo Cantina on Thursday. CreditRoger Kisby for The New York Times

LA CUNETA SON MACHÍN International bands visit SXSW for a chance to draw American attention, and a few dozen ecstatic listeners got to hear La Cuneta Son Machín, a long-running band from Managua, Nicaragua. In frisky cumbias and high-velocity polkas with very brief swerves into rock riffing or rapped vocals, the band sang about food, love, drinking and dancing — especially food. Over what were already speedy tempos, a marimba that sprinted and arpeggiated in double time became a frenetic invitation to party.

Charlie Steen of Shame at Barracuda on Thursday. CreditRoger Kisby for The New York Times

SHAME Charlie Steen’s bright blue jacket came off early in the set by Shame, a South London band barely out of their teens. By the time his Velvet Underground T-shirt followed it, a mosh pit was already churning. Shame activates the visceral instincts of punk and proto-punk, with guitars droning and gnashing, drums kicking them into motion and Mr. Steen barking lyrics about deep disaffection; between songs he had banter like: “Money first, music second. No, I’m just joking — we’re a guitar band in 2018.” The way he ricocheted around the stage — along with forays onto the shoulders of audience members — Mr. Steen should have sported a Stooges T-shirt. Twitching, hunching, crucifying himself with the microphone stand on his shoulders, his moves had the makings of a thousand GIFs.

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Lingua Franca at Seven Grand on Thursday.CreditRoger Kisby for The New York Times

LINGUA FRANCA Mariah Parker, who performs as Lingua Franca, merges rapping, spoken word, singing, a social conscience, a sense of humor and a limber physical presence to mix the personal and the political; tracks built on ingeniously manipulated jazz samples are a bonus. She’s a Ph.D. student in linguistics at the University of Georgia; she’s also thoroughly down-to-earth.

LUCY ROSE This singer dared to perform quietly at SXSW, radiating solace and benevolence in her gauzy, luminous voice. She’s an English songwriter who gained some American listeners with choruses for the rapper Logic. She sang about regretful leave-takings and the possibilities of tender reunions over undulating piano chords or unobtrusive guitar; there were echoes of Feist and Joni Mitchell, but she had her own melodic grace.

BALÚN Latin rock remains wide open to ideas not limited by national origin. Balún, a band from Puerto Rico, sometimes used a reggaeton beat, but it was also ready to layer on deep electronic bass tones, the quick strumming of the small Andean guitar called a charango, pealing rock guitars and ethereal soprano vocals, adding up to songs full of positive aspirations.

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Tim Darcy of Ought at Barracuda on Thursday. CreditRoger Kisby for The New York Times

OUGHT The post-punk band Ought, from Montreal, won’t be pinned down from song to song. It can be melodic, singing about something like romance; it can seethe with frustration; it can switch to jagged, stop-start dissonances. And it can find its way toward ranting affirmation: “I’m no longer afraid to die,” it declared in “Beautiful Blue Sky.” Whatever the idiom, it sounds as if the band means it.

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The Weather Station at St. David’s Historic Sanctuary on Wednesday.CreditRoger Kisby for The New York Times

THE WEATHER STATION Both serenity and storminess infuse the songs that Tamara Lindeman, from Toronto, writes as the Weather Station. Her band’s folk-rock is steeped in Joni Mitchell and Fairport Convention, weighing the textures of interwoven guitars; her lyrics reveal her interior monologues with a literary, lived-in sense of detail, often pondering the ways a couple’s lives can grow together and apart: “An ambulance passed on the street, and you took my arm reflexively,” she sang in “Thirty.”

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Dermot Kennedy at Palm Door on Thursday. CreditRoger Kisby for The New York Times

DERMOT KENNEDYAngels, demons, ghosts, memories and all the dimensions of love haunt the Irish songwriter Dermot Kennedy. He has a grainy, melancholy voice that can crest with a howling rasp; he’s an acknowledged fan of David Gray. Onstage at SXSW, his songs revealed their folky structures, built on guitar or piano. But they also harnessed the dynamics of electronic dance music, with drumbeats sputtering into double time and choruses that exploded into his howl. The valley-and-peak production makes his songs more suitable to current radio, though it may be a Faustian bargain: W ill the tracks sound dated in a few years?

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Jackie Mendoza at the Sidewinder on Wednesday. CreditRoger Kisby for The New York Times

JACKIE MENDOZA A member of the band Gingerlys, Jackie Mendoza backed herself for this show with her own laptop tracks. They were dense concoctions that ch... radically from song to song, touching down at times in dance beats before drifting into more abstract zones, and then getting reeled back by her straightforward vocal lines, with lyrics in English and Spanish.

JADE BIRD Jealousy and separation sparked song after song in a showcase set by Jade Bird; she even had a pre-emptive breakup song: “Knew we had to stop before we started/to torture each other,” she rattled off in “Cathedral.” She’s an English songwriter with a country-rock streak and a furious rasp when she gets riled, which was fairly often in the songs she unveiled: “Baby thanks for leaving me/Happy anniversary,” she snarled.

Superorganism backstage at Fader Fort on Wednesday. CreditRoger Kisby for The New York Times

SUPERORGANISM Deadpan silliness met hipster cool when the London group Superorganism took the stage, mostly in sunglasses and hoodies. Over pop tracks that could sound as if they were concocted from toys, they sang about 21st-century concerns like social media (“Everybody Wants to Be Famous”) and ignoring peer pressure (“Nobody Cares,” “The Prawn Song”), with backup singers doing not-so-synchronized dance moves. Clever and calculated as the songs were, they kept a do-it-yourself spirit.

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Stella Donnelly at Fader Fort on Wednesday. CreditRoger Kisby for The New York Times

STELLA DONNELLY This Australian songwriter has a modest, guileless voice and folky tunes, but her songs can quickly flare into resentment and, if necessary, open anger. In “Boys Will Be Boys,” a graceful waltz, she comforted and defended a sexual-assault victim, while in “Mechanical Bull” she warned that she’d “throw you all off me.” She was chipper but adamant.

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Marlon Williams at Palm Door on Wednesday. CreditRoger Kisby for The New York Times

MARLON WILLIAMS Desperate declarations, vintage chord changes, dramatic buildups and guitar tremolo filled the songs of Marlon Williamsfrom New Zealand: “Now that you’ve left me, what can I say?/What can I do, when I’m lost without you?” His voice was a long-breathed tenor shading smoothly into falsetto; his pants showed a lot of ankle. Brokenhearted and a little geeky, he was a fond throwback to Roy Orbison and Chris Isaak.

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Soccer Mommy at Fader Fort on Thursday. CreditRoger Kisby for The New York Times

SOCCER MOMMY Sophie Allison’s first recordings as Soccer Mommy were homemade, seemingly tentative songs about yearning and deep insecurity. But with her 2018 album, “Clean,” she found new self-assertion and assembled a working band, which provided some musical and emotional armor in a mini-set concentrating ...r rockers.

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Mallrat at Space 24 Twenty on Thursday. CreditRoger Kisby for The New York Times

MALLRAT All the awkwardness and annoyances of suburban teenage life find their way into the songs of Grace Shaw, a 19-year-old Australian who calls herself Mallrat. She worries, and doesn’t worry, about fitting in or being liked; she mocks the comforts of sterile surroundings. Her songs turn mild rap cadences into singsong melodies, set to vamps that match guitar or piano chords with perky electronics. And during the festival she performed at a mall store.

[Edited 3/19/18 8:08am]

Just Music-No Categories-Enjoy It!

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Reply #18 posted 03/19/18 8:59am

purplethunder3
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alt Back in 2016 we spotlighted Texan soulstress K.AVETT (pronounced "kay uh vet") and her debut album 'K.Avett: Revelations' from which the single – the double A side 'Show Me'/'Alone' won plenty of support for its kind of Jill Scott meets Conya Doss jazzy/neo soul flavours.

Right now the singer is preparing for the release of her sophomore album, 'Lioness' from which the lead single 'Feelin' Good' / 'The Matter' has just become available. 'Feelin' Good' is lazy jazz-soul ramble very much in the mode of the aforementioned Jill Scott while 'The Matter' has a more complex, layered sound to it. Both, though, have a summery vibe – most welcome at this still chilly time of year!

alt

Last Updated on Saturday, 17 March 2018 15:17

BRAZILIAN ROOTS:

Saturday, 17 March 2018 14:16 Bill B

alt RICARDO BACELAR is a noted Brazilian pianist/composer/arranger. He began his music career in rock band Hanoi Hanoi but in 2001 he jumped ship, embraced jazz and released his first solo album, 'In Natura'. Then he returned to his trained profession.... he's a fully qualified lawyer – and devoted his energies to working on copyright and intellectual property cases. Music, though, beckoned and in 2016 he "cameback" with 'Concerto Para Moviola'.

Ricardo has now released his most ambitious project - 'Sebastiana' – a 15 track set that celebrates the whole gamut of Latin American music from a Brazilian perspective. That said, the long player was actually recorded in Miami, a city that Senor Barcelar calls "the centre of Latin music". There he assembled a team to create a music that honours the roots of Brazilian music yet incorporates each individual player's culture and musical heritage.

Produced by Brazilian bassist Cesar Lemos, the players on 'Sebastiana' include Venezuelan Anderson Quintero (drums), Cuban percussionist Yoel del Sol ,Colombians Channo Tierra (accordion) and Jose Sibaja (trumpet) and American pedal steel guitarist Steve Hinson while vocalists number Brazilians Ros Max and Ramatis Moraes and Americans Maye Osorio .

The album boasts two tunes penned by Bacelar and Lemos with the remaining 13 tracks coming from the catalogues of some of Brazil's most celebrated composers.... amongst them Gilberto Gil, Ivan Lins, Flora Purim, Lo Borges, Tom Jobim, Victor Martins and Milton Nascimento whose lovely 'Nothing Will Be As It Was' is the album's lead focus single. The track has a haunting, ethereal quality heightened by Hinson's pedal steel and Osorio's sensual vocal.

Bacelar says: "When I recorded this album, I wanted to pay homage to Brazilian music presenting distinct performances of Latin American musicians who put elements of their own cultures into the fusion of influences. That fusion of elements of cultures and influences in a recording turns the music into a transmission vehicle of knowledge." You can read more of Bacelar's music philosophy in the lavish booklet that accompanies the album.

TEMPTATIONS: NEW ALBUM!

Friday, 16 March 2018 16:20 Bill B

alt Great news for all proper soul fans! The mighty, mighty TEMPTATIONS have announced that they'll soon be releasing a brand new studio album –their first in over eight years!

'All The Time' hits the sales racks on May 4th and we're told that the set marks a subtle change of direction for the Emperors of Soul. You see the bulk of the tracks are covers of songs from leading contemporary artists like Sam Smith, Bruno Mars, John Mayer and Ed Sheeran. There are also songs originally recorded by Maxwell and someone called Michael Jackson! There will also be three new, original Temptations songs.

The producer is Dave Darling known for his work with, among others, Glen Campbell, Brian Setzer, Tom Waits, and Janiva Magness and the Tempts current lineup is Otis Williams, Ron Tyson, Terry Weeks, Larry Braggs, and Willie Greene.

The album's digital format includes two tracks available for immediate download and streaming today (Friday 16th March) with album preorder, as well as two bonus track remixes.

Full review here at SJF just as soon as we have our copy!

BACK BREAKING WORK!

Friday, 16 March 2018 16:17 Bill B

alt Sometime Heatwave lead singer, DONOVAN BLACKWOOD impressed all comers with his lovely 'Never Gonna Let You Go' and 'All My Life' from last year. The in-demand Donovan, fresh from work with the British Collective, is now set to release a new single that couples 'Everybody But Me' with 'Break My Back'. 'Break....' was previously available on Donovan's 5 track EP. In fairness neither song is as immediately impressive as 'Never Gonna Let You Go' but they repay continued plays.

'Everybody But Me' is an insistent groove that rides in over a bubbling bass line; 'Break My Back' is tougher... ponderous even , but on both the Brit soul quotient is high.

Right now Mr B is getting ready to support Shalamar and Hot Chocolate on tour while he also has a cameo role in Steven Spielberg's new movie 'Ready Player One'. Donovan plays a gospel singer..... excellent casting!

"Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything." --Plato

https://youtu.be/CVwv9LZMah0

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Reply #19 posted 03/19/18 9:09am

David Bowie’s Lazarus Musical Coming to Film

It premieres at Kings Theatre in Brooklyn with the production’s original pit band

David Bowie

David Bowie photo by George Pimentel/WireImage

David Bowie’s musical Lazarus made its debut in New York City in December 2015, one month before the icon’s passing. Following the New York production, an off-West End run of the show opened in London in 2016. Now, it’s been announced that a theatrical cut of the London production will debut at Kings Theatre in Brooklyn on May 2, with a one-night only backing from the original band that performed during the New York run of the show. Tickets go on sale to the general public on March 20.

Lazarus was adapted into a VR experience last year. The musical’s complete script book was released near the end of 2016. Read our review of the Lazarus OST.

Tinashe Announces ‘Joyride’ Release Date, Reveals Album Cover

Posted on March 18, 2018

It looks like Tinashe finally got the green light for her long-awaited sophomore album, ‘Joyride.’ The R&B songstress took to social media recently to announce the project’s release date along with revealing the set’s cover art.

“The wait is over,” Tinashe wrote. “JOYRIDE 4-13.”

Due out April 13th, ‘Joyride’ is herald by the singles ‘No Drama,’ featuring Migos’ Offset, and the Future-assisted ‘Faded Love.’

In the accompanying album cover art, Tinashe is captured in a silhouette form while rocking an elegant dress with a technological contraption strapped to her back with two long spikes.

Tinashe previously blamed the album’s setbacks on sexism and colorism. With a four year gap between projects, she kept busy by releasing several projects including, ‘Amethyst’ and bonus album ‘Nightride.’

‘Joyride’ follows up her 2014 debut, ‘Aquarius.’

TINASHE✔@Tinashe

The wait is over. JOYRIDE 4•13

4:38 PM - Mar 16, 2018

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Celebrating The Life and Legacy of the Late, Great Daryl Coley

ByJoshua King

Posted on March 18, 2018

Daryl Coley is an American Christian singer. Coley has been a staple in the music industry, especially amongst the gospel genre as many have been influenced by his music. His genre of choice originates from his upbringing in a Christian-based household. He has been behind various artists including Tremaine Hawkins, James Cleveland, and Pete Escovedo.

Although Coley is best known for his Gospel music, he began dabbling in secular music by the middle of the 1980s. Jazz began grasping Coley’s attention where he collaborated with artists such as Nancy Wilson and Randy Franklin throughout the decade.

Coley’s Gospel roots returned to him when he released his debut album, Just Daryl in 1986. The album won a Grammy and had a beam of success centered around it causing a re-release in 2006. Coley charted in 14 entries on the Top Gospel Albums chart, including six top 10s and the No. 1 When the Music Stops (in 1992) as well as in 2006 with Praise & Worship.

His career was celebrated in January 2014 by BMI as part of their 15th annual Trailblazers of Gospel Music Awards in Nashville. In 2016, Coley passed away at 60-years-old after a long battle with diabetes.

Due to the amazing legacy that Coley left, Singersroom decided to start a social media challenge. Followers of the brand indulged in the challenge by singing their favorite Coley tunes. There was one particular singer that stood out, Jeronelle (@IAmJeronelle). The Clark Atlanta University alum is an avid singer. While matriculating he was very active in the prestigious vocal program at the university. He took to social media singing a faved Coley tune captioning his post with “I will always be a student of the late, great Daryl Coley. ” The range and runs JeRonelle exhibited were impeccable, surely Coley would agree.

Thank you to all the social media participants and a special salute to Coley as he would have celebrated his 62 birthday on March 15.

Ruben Studdard Celebrates The Late Luther Vandross With Tribute Album (Stream)

Posted on March 18, 2018

American Idol Alum Ruben Studdard returns with new music in the form of a special tribute. The “Velvet Teddy Bear” celebrates the life of the late, great Luther Vandross, his greatest inspiration and idol, by releasing the tribute album, ‘Ruben Sings Luther.’

The 10-song offering features covers of classics like ‘Never Too Much,’ ‘Always and Forever,’ ‘Love Won’t Let Me Wait,’ ‘A House Is Not A Home,’ and more.

“My goal was to not only to pay tribute to Luther but to add my own passion on top of Luther’s brilliant songs,” says Ruben. “It all started with my mom who has always loved Luther and played his music in our home continuously – especially during Christmas. You can say I grew up with the world’s biggest Luther fan. In my young teens, I would perform a Luther song or two at weddings and people would keep requesting more of his hits. I recorded ‘Superstar’ awhile back which was Grammy nominated and sang different Luther songs during my live shows. But people always asked when I was going to do an album of Luther’s songs. Happily the day has arrived. It was a thrilling experience selecting the songs from his different albums and putting my own interpretation on them. I am so proud of this record.”

Studdard will support the tribute project with the 22-stop “Always and Forever Tour,” which kicks off on April 8th in Sacramento, CA and culminate May 13 in West Palm Beach, FL.

“As for the tour, we are not only recreating some of the production elements, musicians, background singers, wardrobe and lighting that were ever present when Luther took the stage, but my heart and soul will be in every note I sing as I honor one of the greatest vocalists we’ve ever had,” he adds.

Known for his smooth R&B sound and his genial personality, the Grammy-nominated Studdard won the second season of American Idol. Has been compared to Vandross ever since he set foot on the Idol stage. Studdard had included some of Vandross’ monster hits on the six studio albums he has released since 2003.

‘Ruben Sings Luther’ is Studdard’s first album dedicated solely to the legendary singer, Vandross.

“I think that this album for me was just a long time coming,” Studdard tells PEOPLE about why the time was right. “Since I won American Idol, people have been asking for me to sing Luther songs for a long time. I thought, ‘OK. You want to hear it? I might as well do it. I thought it was the perfect time to pay homage to one of the greatest song interpreters of all time.”

Studdard says he never met his idol – but came close in 2003.

“I never got the chance to meet him,” he says. “Actually, from my understanding, they were considering him to be one of the guest judges on Idol before he got sick.”

Vandross suffered a massive stroke on April 16, 2003, and died in 2005.

Stream ‘Ruben Sings Luther’ and see all the tour dates below.

SUN, APRIL 8 – CREST THEATRE, SACRAMENTO, CA
WED, APRIL 11 – THE ROSE, PASADENA, CA
THU, APRIL 12 – FOX PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, RIVERSIDE, CA
FRI, APRIL 13 – TEXAS STATION CASINO, LAS VEGAS, NV
SAT, APRIL 14 – CHANDLER CENTER FOR THE ARTS, CHANDLER, AZ
SUN, APRIL 15 – SYCUAN CASINO, EL CAJON, CA
TUE, APRIL 17 – SOILED DOVE UNDERGROUND, DENVER, CO
THU, APRIL 19 – THE KENT STAGE, KENT, OH
FRI, APRIL 20 – ARCADA THEATRE, ST. CHARLES, IL
SAT, APRIL 21 – POTTER CENTER / COMMUNITY COLLEGE, JACKSON, MI
SUN, APRIL 22 – SCHROTT CENTER FOR THE ARTS, INDIANAPOLIS, IN
TUE, APRIL 24 – BERGEN PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, ENGLEWOOD, NJ
THU, APRIL 26 – STATE THEATRE NEW JERSEY, NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ
FRI, APRIL 27 – THE ZEITERION PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE, BOSTON, MA
SAT, APRIL 28 – KESWICK THEATRE, GLENSIDE, PA
SUN, APRIL 29 – THE CABOT THEATER, BEVERLY, MA
WED, MAY 2 – NYCB THEATRE, WESTBURY, NY
FRI, MAY 4 – MOHEGAN SUN HOTEL & CASINO, UNCASVILLE, CT
SAT, MAY 5 – ROBERT PARILLA PAC AT MONTGOMERY COLLEGE, ROCKVILLE, MD
MON, MAY 7 – THE AVALON THEATRE, EASTON, MD
WED, MAY 9 – FLORIDA THEATRE, JACKSONVILLE, FL
THU, MAY 10 – HARD ROCK HOTEL, ORLANDO, FL
SAT, MAY 12 – STRAZ CENTER FOR THE ARTS / FERGUSON HALL, TAMPA, FL
SUN, MAY 13 – KRAVIS CENTER / DREYFOOS HALL, WEST PALM BEACH, FL

NEWS

Jessie Ware Reveals North American Tour Dates

Posted on February 28, 2018

London-born singer/songwriter Jessie Ware will support her latest release, Glasshouse, with a North American headline tour.

“You politely asked, then you begged, so… FINALLY I can announce I am coming to North America! I can’t wait,” states Ware. “You know I love playing for you so much.”

Kicking off on Sunday, April 15 in Indio, CA at Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, the trek will visit major cities like Boston, Toronto, Brooklyn, Los Angeles, New York, and Philadelphia before culminating on Friday, May 11 in Washington, DC at Lincoln Theatre.

Tickets are on sale to the general public starting Friday, March 2nd at 10am local time at JessieWare.com. Fans can purchase pre-sale tickets starting today, Wednesday, February 28th at 10am local time through Thursday, March 1st at 10pm local time by using passcode: SAM123.

Ware’s latest album, Glasshouse, available now via today via PMR Records / Friends Keep Secrets / Interscope Records, marks a thematic departure from her second LP, 2014’s Tough Love. The project is a tender, candid exploration of family life, boosted by the 2016 birth of Ware’s first child, and by the sometimes painful soul-searching that marked that transformative moment. “It became an album for my husband and my baby,” she says. “It’s an apology, a confession, a love note, a declaration. It shows all my fears and all of my emotion.”

images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQJt_Qmz-iTqa2Vr8n2si4ZDB64aQ5cpXYKhG8KJqsXOmgmiQzcJA

Jessie Ware North American Tour Dates:

Sunday, April 15 Indio, CA Coachella Festival*
Tuesday, April 17 Pomona, CA The Glass House*
Wednesday, April 18 West Hollywood, CA The Roxy Theatre*
Thursday, April 19 Solana Beach, CA Belly Up*
Sunday, April 22 Indio, CA Coachella Festival*
Tuesday, April 24 Salt Lake City, UT The Depot
Wednesday, April 25 Denver, CO Bluebird Theater
Friday, April 27 Kansas City, MO Madrid Theatre
Sunday, April 29 Minneapolis, MN Varsity Theater
Monday, April 30 Chicago, IL Vic Theatre
Wednesday, May 2 Detroit, MI Majestic
Thursday, May 3 Toronto, ON Danforth Music Hall
Saturday, May 5 Boston, MA Paradise Rock Club
Monday, May 7 New York, NY Brooklyn Steel
Thursday, May 10 Philadelphia, PA Theatre of Living Arts
Friday, May 11 Washington, DC Lincoln Theatre

*dates currently on sale

Eric Benet and Faith Evans Announce “Duets Tour”

Posted on February 28, 2018

Eric Benét is teaming with another veteran female R&B singer for a tour run!

Last year, Benet joined forces with Marsha Ambrosius for “The M.E Tour” and this time around he will partner with Grammy Award-winning artist Faith Evans for the “Duets Tour,” dubbed “a Lifetime of Music in One Night.”

Kicking off in June 2018, the national “Duets” tour will see Benet and Evans covering some of the most popular R&B duets of all time as well as their own classic hits. Some confirmed duets will include their hit collaboration, ‘Georgie Porgie,’ Roberta Flack & Donnie Hathaway’s ‘Back Together Again,’ and Usher & Alicia Keys’ ‘My Boo.’

Benet and Evans will share a band and a spotlight, performing together throughout a continuous show spanning from the old school to the new school. The trek will continue throughout early 2019, with select stop-offs in some overseas markets.

Prior to hitting the road for the once in a lifetime collaboration, Benet and Evans will head to the studio together.

From barefoot dreadlocked troubadour to suave standard-bearer for contemporary R&B. Eric Benét may have changed his look, but one thing has remained consistent: his dedication to crafting authentic music that engages the soul.

Faith Renée Evans’ music career spans over two decades — She has released eight studio albums, with over 18 million albums sold and spawning over 30 singles. Faith has also performed on 20+ soundtracks and a host of guest appearances during her career.

Limited dates available — Stay tuned for official tour dates!

Bruno Mars Reveal Dates For ’24K Magic World Tour’ Finale

Posted on February 12, 2018

Bruno Mars recently announced that he would be hitting the road for a final run of his hugely successful ’24K Magic World Tour.’ today, the 11-time GRAMMY Award winner revealed dates for the 23-date arena trek, which will feature rapper Cardi B.

The North American tour kicks off with a two-night residence (Sept. 7-8) in Denver before traveling to other major cities like Philadelphia, Toronto, Boston, Newark, Brooklyn, and Dallas before wrapping with a four-night finale in Los Angeles.

Mars’ ’24K Magic World Tour’ launched in March 2017 and has already surpassed $200 million in earnings worldwide. Breakout rapper Cardi, who teamed with Mars on the remix of his hit, “Finesse,” should help skyrocket this number.

The tour comes on the heels of Mars’ sweep at the recent GRAMMY Awards, making him the first male artist in 25 years to win album, record, and song of the year. He’s also the only male artist this decade to have won across both pop and R&B genres and the “Big Three” categories. Mars is one of only five R&B artists to win the GRAMMY for album of the year, preceded by Stevie Wonder, Quincy Jones, Natalie Cole and Ray Charles.

Tickets go on sale Friday, Feb. 16, at 12 p.m. local time.

24K Magic World Tour Dates

Sept. 7 – Denver, CO – Pepsi Center
Sept. 8 – Denver, CO – Pepsi Center
Sept. 11 – St. Paul, MN – Xcel Energy Center
Sept. 15 – Detroit, MI – Little Caesars Arena
Sept. 19 – Philadelphia, PA – Wells Fargo Center
Sept. 20 – Philadelphia, PA – Wells Fargo Center
Sept. 22 – Toronto, ON – Air Canada Centre
Sept. 23 – Toronto, ON – Air Canada Centre
Sept. 27 – Boston, MA – TD Garden
Sept. 28 – Boston, MA – TD Garden
Oct. 1 – Newark, NJ – Prudential Center
Oct. 2 – Newark, NJ – Prudential Center
Oct. 4 – Brooklyn, NY – Barclays Center
Oct. 5 – Brooklyn, NY – Barclays Center
Oct. 7 – Nashville, TN – Bridgestone Arena
Oct. 11 – Tulsa, OK – BOK Center
Oct. 14 – Dallas, TX – American Airlines Center
Oct. 15 – Dallas, TX – American Airlines Center
Oct. 20 – Austin, TX** – Circuit of the Americas
Oct. 23 – Los Angeles, CA – STAPLES Center
Oct. 24 – Los Angeles, CA – STAPLES Center
Oct. 26 – Los Angeles, CA – STAPLES Center
Oct. 27 – Los Angeles, CA – STAPLES Center

[Edited 3/19/18 9:37am]

Just Music-No Categories-Enjoy It!

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Reply #20 posted 03/19/18 10:13am

purplethunder3
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The Lazarus film will be nice for Bowie fans who didn't get to see the theater production. It's great that Bowie got to see it before he passed.

"Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything." --Plato

https://youtu.be/CVwv9LZMah0

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Reply #21 posted 03/22/18 3:53pm

By Michele Amabile Angermiller

OAK RIDGE BOYS REVEAL ‘17TH AVENUE REVIVAL’, PRODUCED BY DAVE COBB

LIV STECKER

January 19, 2018

Al Messerschmidt, Getty images

The Oak Ridge Boys have announced the release of 17th Avenue Revival on March 16. This album will be the group's second project produced by the legendary Dave Cobb, and it will be released on Lightning Rod Records. (Cobb previously worked with the band on their 2009 project The Boys Are Back.)

“Having been in The Oak Ridge Boys for almost 52 years,” says band member Duane Allen, “it can be difficult for me to imagine a place where we have not been. However, Dave Cobb had that vision, and the result is 17th Avenue Revival.”

17th Avenue Revival calls on the throwback rock 'n' roll and Southern gospel roots of the Oak Ridge Boys, delivering a product that Allen says was religious experience: “Legendary Studio A on 17th Avenue South became a special, almost spiritual place, and for a few weeks it served as a beacon of creativity," he continues.

Thirty Tigers

“17th Avenue Revival is something we believe our fans will love,” bass singer Richard Sterban adds, and the band's Joe Bonsall says that going backwards in time led to a new sound -- quite a feat for a musical group that's been around for more than five decades.

“Old roads turned into new roads on this album,” Bonsall quips, and it wasn't just the music, but the band itself that was renewed in the process with the help of Cobb: “Dave brought music with spirit and a magical feel to the studio," says William Lee Golden. "It became a mental, emotional, physical and spiritual revival for the Oak Ridge Boys."

The Oak Ridge Boys' illustrious career has spanned more than 50 years and includes more than 20 major awards, including five Grammys. They're members of the Grand Ole Opry and the Country Music Hall of Fame and have released dozens of albums.

17th Avenue Revival, a nine-track project, is available for pre-order now, with the track "Brand New Star" offered as an instant download upon purchase. Readers can also press play below to hear that song.

Oak Ridge Boys, 17th Avenue Revival Track Listing:

1. “Brand New Star” (Aaron Raitiere & Mando Saenz)
2. “There Will Be Light” (Jamey Johnson, Larry Shell & Buddy Cannon)
3. “God’s Got It” (Charlie Jackson)
4. “I’d Rather Have Jesus” (Rhea Miller & George Beverly Shea)
5. “Walk in Jerusalem” (Traditional /Public Domain)
6. “Where He Leads Me I Will Follow” (Ernest W. Blandy / Public Domain)
7. “Pray to Jesus” (Brandy Clark & Shane McAnally)
8. “If I Die” (Ashley Monroe & Vince Gill)
9. “Let It Shine on Me” (Vince Gill & Ashley Monroe)

Fifth Harmony 411: Who’s Handling the Girls During the Hiatus

@micheleamabile

Michele Amabile Angermiller

@micheleamabile FOLLOW

fifth-harmony.jpg?crop=0px%2C9px%2C1000px%2C563px&resize=1000%2C563

Like any job change, leaving a group for a solo career is a process that requires a smart strategy and the right team. And when all four members of Fifth Harmony announced Monday morning ... same time, they’ve provided a textbook example of how to do it right, at least so far. All four had firmed up their teams before the announcement — Ally Brooke had announced...ement deal just a week earlier — and all four already had released solo projects or guest appearances, particularly in the past few months. This is doubly impressive considering the group released an album in August and toured internationally behind it — although they held back from doing a major North American trek (perhaps in anticipation of the increased demand that One Direction saw on their pre-hiatus tour).

The group — Ally Brooke, Normani Kordei, Dinah Jane Hansen and Lauren Jauregui – has been a quartet since the January 2016 departure of Camila Cabello, whose solo debut album and song, “Havana” both hit No. 1 on the charts (which maybe could have had some influence on the other Harmonists’ decision). And while three of the four will continue to be managed by Maverick’s Larry Rudolph (who also manages Britney Spears) among other similarities, no Harmonist has the same team.

With each girl striking out with the hopes for similar results, Variety takes a look at the teams each member is assembling as they embark on their separate journeys.

Ally Brooke

Management: Will Bracey/ Larry Rudolph at Maverick
Legal: Gary Gilbert, Manatt
Business Manager: Steves Rodriquez, Freemark Financial
Publicity: Donovan Public Relations
Release: “Perfect” with Topic

Dinah Jane Hansen

Management: Larry Rudolph/ Dan Dymtrow/ Tara Beikae at Maverick
Legal: Dina LaPolt, LaPolt Law
Business Manager: Steves Rodriquez, Freemark Financial
Publicity: PMK
Single: “Boom Boom” with Daddy Yankee, RedOne and French Montana

Lauren Jauregui

Management: Larry Rudolph/ Dan Dymtrow/ Tara Beikae at Maverick
Legal: Dina LaPolt, LaPolt Law
Business Manager: Steves Rodriquez, Freemark Financial
Publicity: PMK
Singles: “Strangers” with Halsey; “All Night” with Steve Aoki

Normani Kordei

Management: Brandon Silverstein
Legal: Ed Shapiro at Rewed Smith
Publicity: BTPR
Business manager: Wayne Kammoto at DWA
Single: “Love Lies” with Khalid

L.A. Reid’s First Post-Sony Signing Is a Member of Outkast (EXCLUSIVE)

By Shirley Halperin

@shirleyhalperin

Shirley Halperin

Executive Editor, Music@shirleyhalperin FOLLOW

CREDIT: PIZZELLO/AP/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK

L.A. Reid’s first signing since leaving Epic Records in May 2017 is Big Boi of Outkast, Varietyhas confirmed. Reid’s new company HitCo is working to radio the song “All Night,” which got a big boost of exposure last last year when it was used in an Apple campaign for the iPhone X. The “Animoji Yourself” spot has more than 15 million views on YouTube and is among the top Shazam’ed tags in markets like Japan and France.

Hitco has secured distribution through EMPIRE, the independent company which helped propel such hits as D.R.A.M.’s “Broccoli” featuring Lil Yachty, and Fat Joe and Remy Ma’s “All the Way Up.”

Big Boi has released three solo albums outside of his work with Andre 3000 (ne Andre Benjamin), the other half of Outkast. Reid initially signed the group to Arista when they were just out of high school and went on to see tremendous success including six Grammy Awards won between 2002 and 2004 for the seminal albums “Stankonia” and “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below.” Outkast performed a series of reunion shows on the summer festival circuit in 2014. Andre 3000 later described the experience as feeling “like a sellout.”

Outside of Outkast, Big Boi, who is managed by Adam Harrison, also participated in the group Big Grams, featuring Phantogram. The experimental hip-hop outfit released a well-received debut EP in 2015 on Epic Records when Reid was chairman and CEO of the label.

According to sources, Reid and fellow Arista veteran Charles Goldstuck have raised well over $100 million to launch Hitco. Offices are planned for New York, Los Angeles and Atlanta.

Reid’s career as a music executive dates back to the 1990s when he founded LaFace Records, a joint venture with Arista Records, which later folded into Sony Music, and yielded hit albums by TLC, Pink and Usher, among others. But in 2017, his exit from Sony was acrimonious as sexual misconduct allegations against him became public.

Judas-Priest-Firepower-Review.jpg?w=980&q=75

JUDAS PRIEST’S ‘FIREPOWER’ FINDS METAL GODS HITTING ANOTHER CREATIVE PEAK – ALBUM REVIEW

JOE DIVITA

March 7, 2018

Epic / Sony

Forty-eight years and eighteen albums into Judas Priest’s career, and -- against all odds -- the Metal Gods are still in powerful form.

Four years after Redeemer of Souls, Priest re-enlisted the classic production duo of Tom Allom and Mike Exeter, adding modern whiz Andy Sneap to the fold, to ensure Firepower blazes with a slick, modern and punchy production without sacrificing their classic metal sound. The result is a diverse album, ranging from Painkiller-esque hard chargers to sweeping, majestic epics that harken back to iconic tracks like “Beyond the Realms of Death” and “Blood Red Skies.” The arrangements are sometimes anthemic and to the point, adventurous and exploratory at others, demonstrating that the band’s drive to challenge themselves as writers has not waned over the years. Clearly, they are striving to add to their legacy rather than coast on it, remaining a potent force among the modern heavy metal landscape.

Firepower, and its fourteen tracks which span fifty-eight minutes, is Judas Priest’s finest work since reclaiming their sound on the sonic wrecking ball that was Painkiller. It establishes a familiar riffing ethos immediately with the title track opener, working in leads to accent the rhythmic barrage. The twin guitar attack that defined the band -- and early heavy metal -- aren’t as present here as they’ve been in the past, but Richie Faulkner truly establishes himself beyond any doubt as a worthy replacement for K.K. Downing. He’s reignited the band onstage over the years; here, he makes his greatest studio contributions yet with simple but daringly effective leads (and plenty of divebombs!) to add flourishes to moments on “Lightning Strike” (a song deserving of a spot on any greatest hits comp) and the grandiose “Traitors Gate,” to name a few highlights.

The album has a modern feel; it won't feel out of place on your "Best Metal of 2018" Spotify mix. The choruses often utilize rhythm-intensive, lunging riffs to spike the adrenaline in favor of sustained chords and gleaming twin melodies of the classic years. When used properly (“Firepower,” “Evil Never Dies,” “Traitors Gate”), they add a newfound heaviness to Priest’s sound, aligning them with today’s scene. The rock-steady, grinning opening of “Evil Never Dies,” where Rob Halford declares “The Devil’s moved from Georgia, his mission’s still the same,” (a cheeky nod to the Charlie Daniels Band classic “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”) nearly gives way to arena territory, but it’s quickly cut down by the musclebound, sliding rhythms of the chorus, keeping the intensity of the album in the red just three tracks in. Meanwhile on the heroic, galloping “Traitors Gate,” the singer discharges his best performance of the album and the bottom-heavy refrain packs the might needed to counter the more traditional riffing aesthetic.

These choral elements also work against some otherwise standout songs. “Children of the Sun,” with its slugging, Black Sabbath, Dehumanizer-esque tectonic riffing thunder and brilliantly composed back half, is hampered by an all too simple, underwhelming rhythm. “Necromancer” suffers the same fate, but Halford’s affinity for horror fantasy redeems the lackluster refrain.

The frontman has discussed being pushed to do multiple takes, multiple times, by the production team, during the making of Firepower. But the endless vocal takes seem to have brought the best to the surface. This is his best work since the 2002 Halford album Crucible. The Metal God’s enunciation is pristine (you can almost hear the spit spray out of his mouth and onto the mic) and there’s a raging confidence behind his delivery with more gusto than the competent but fairly safe Redeemer of Souls. He doesn’t tee off with his famed falsetto shrieks nearly as often as he used to, but in the rare instances where he does, it demolishes any doubts that Rob Halford can still deliver. Emotion runs high in every line from the spotlight vocal on the reflective closing ballad “Sea of Red” to the eerie shriek of “You are the reason I feel dead” on “Children of the Sun.”

Perhaps it’s the lyrics that have provided that extra gusto that was missing on previous albums. Thematically, Firepower is rooted in the current day as connections can be made to ongoing political and social strife around the globe whether it’s looking at a world in turmoil on “Lightning Strike” or the insatiable force of wickedness on “Evil Never Dies.” There’s nothing mentioned outright in the lyrics, but there’s dots to be connected if you dig around enough, and that's a defining quality of timeless music.

Firepower really finds all of Priest’s members committing career performances. Never a flashy player, Ian Hill remains the anchor of the band’s thunder-forged sound, his bass forever fused to his hip as if it was a bodily extension. His rhythmic counterpart, Scott Travis, elevates his game here with subtle brilliance. The China cymbal smashes in the chorus of “Lightning Strike” make a great song even greater with just that small touch. Elsewhere, he leads with clever kick patterns and even on songs like “Spectre,” just one extra kick beat brings out a whole dynamic behind the line “With the blade held tight.” During “Rising From Ruins,” a cinematic and empowering song that surges with an anthemic refrain and layers of vocal harmonies, his surgical, rolling fill following the climactic solo buildup brings the song back home to the refrain to close out the track. It doesn’t sound like much, but it showcases Priest's ethos of paying attention to every sonic detail.

After nearly five decades of delivering the goods, Judas Priest could have coasted on their reputation on a new album, but they still have their ear to the ground of modern metal. They've crafted a record that can confidently stand alongside their most esteemed works without sounding dated or like self-parody. We’ll all have our favorite songs, and, in turn, some gripes, but for now let’s enjoy the fact that Priest are still with us, still committed to making seminal new music. With the news of Glenn Tipton’s decision to step away from touring as he continues to battle Parkinson’s Disease, who knows if we’ll ever get another chance to hit "play" on a fresh batch of Priest tunes ever again? We can spend the next five decades debating Firepower. But for now, the Hell Patrol still rides, sworn defenders of the faith and guardians of heavy metal.

SMASHING PUMPKINS’ BILLY CORGAN: ‘THIS IS THE HAPPIEST TIME OF THE BAND,’ BUT D’ARCY WRETZKY BRIDGE BURNED ‘FOREVER’

CHAD CHILDERS

March 22, 2018

Victor Moriyama, Getty Images

Smashing Pumpkins, at least three quarters of the most successful lineup, will be hitting the road together this summer with new music in the works as well. But how are the group, who were notorious for their dysfunctional conflicts during the height of their success, handling things being back together?

“I would say this is the happiest time of the band," Billy Corgan told The New York Times. "It’s a bit akin to trying to rekindle a romance almost two decades later. The love is there, but, you know, is the language? Is the magic there?”

You can count producer Rick Rubin as one of the proponents of the new lineup, as he told the Times, “The energy of the performances are fiery and vibrant," adding that the new music "fits well with classic Pumpkin catalog." He continued, "It’s not unusual for there to exist volatility with passionate, creative people. It seems like they’ve know each other long enough for many of the old wounds to have healed and they all seem like they are in a good place, so they came in with a healthy mindset."

While fans speculated feverishly about a potential reunion of the classic lineup, pulling together all four players proved more difficult, with bassist D'Arcy Wretzky eventually being excluded from the tour.

“He was stringing me along and using me to be able to say that it was, in fact, a reunion of all the members,” said Wretzky, who told the Times, “Billy can be incredibly charming and funny and fun, but when it comes to money and giving credit where credit is due in any kind of work situation, it’s not pretty."

A very public dispute between Wretzky and Corgan unfurled as the tour announcement neared, with Wretzky stating that should would not be taking part, then revealing her correspondence with the singer.

“I think what she did demonstrates why she couldn’t be involved," said Corgan. “I was vulnerable and shared things and trusted that there was a reason to give it a chance, despite plenty of empirical evidence that that was not a wise decision.” The singer went on to say that the bridge is now burned "forever" where Wretzky is concerned, with Jack Bates signing on to play bass on the tour.

The band's touring officially kicks off July 12 in Glendale, Ariz., with the focus of this run being on the group's first five albums. As for the new music, stay tuned for release details.

[Edited 3/22/18 16:12pm]

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Reply #22 posted 03/23/18 4:46pm

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Reply #23 posted 03/24/18 3:51pm

Identity	R&B songstress H.E.R. returns with a lovelorn ballad.
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Reply #24 posted 03/25/18 8:48am

Saturday (March 24) was a big day across America as the March for Our Lives rallies took place in major cities across the country. The March for Our Lives came to fruition due to the desire from students to see some movement toward stricter gun legislation and stronger school safety in the wake of the recent mass shooting at the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., as well as other school shootings.

"Not one more. We cannot allow one more child to be shot at school," reads a portion of the March for Our Lives mission statement. "We cannot allow one more teacher to make a choice to jump in front of a firing assault rifle to save the lives of students. We cannot allow one more family to wait for a call or text that never comes. Our schools are unsafe. Our children and teachers are dying. We must make it our top priority to save these lives."

The primary march was centered in Washington, D.C., while New York also played host to march in which Paul McCartney was one of the attendees. Speaking with CNN, McCartney stated, "One of my best friends was killed in gun violence right around here, so it's important to me," referring to the death of John Lennon.

McCartney was just one of many celebs and musicians lending their support to the march, either through their own participation or encouraging those who took part. Below you'll find some of the social media commentary about the march from Slash, Paul Stanley, Pearl Jam, Nikki Sixx, Lzzy Hale, Phil Labonte, Jared Leto, Steven Tyler and more. Check out the rockers reactions to the March for Our Lives.

And to learn more of what can be done beyond the March for Our Lives, click here.

Paul Stanley✔@PaulStanleyLive

So PROUD to live in this great country where we can raise our voices and gather in protest for change but IT WILL ALL MEAN NOTHING IF YOU DON’T VOTE. Honor your freedom by using it. #MarchForOurLives

1:19 PM - Mar 24, 2018

1,295

305 people are talking about this

Pearl Jam✔@PearlJam

Protect kids, not guns! Use your voice, share this photo and march in your city tomorrow. #IWillMarch #MarchForOurLives

3:00 PM - Mar 23, 2018

1,519

538 people are talking about this

Phil✔@philthatremains

I am against gun violence.

I am against any aggressive violence.

I believe in the non agression principal.

It is wrong to coerce, assault, or defraud people. Full stop.

I’m against those things every day. #LibertyEveryday #MarchForOurLives

11:30 AM - Mar 24, 2018

107

32 people are talking about this

Phil✔@philthatremains

He always has the perfect thing to say. @TheRock

1:14 PM - Mar 24, 2018

34

See Phil's other Tweets

xxıS ıʞʞıN✔@NikkiSixx

Proud of the kids & families of #MarchForOurLives for taking the streets to demand their lives and safety become a priority,and that we end gun violence in our schools and communities. EQUALLY ASHAMED OF ARTIST W/ A VOICE THAT STAY MUTE OUT OF FEAR OF LOSING $ BY UPSETTING FANS.

4:23 PM - Mar 23, 2018

701

177 people are talking about this

Lzzy Hale✔@LZZYHALE

Our hearts, minds and spirits are with everyone marching today! So many humans United! It’s a harder path to take if you want stand for what’s right! Thank you so much to the brave, beautiful souls who are unafraid to #March4OurLives #MarchforOurLives

8:17 PM - Mar 24, 2018

593

129 people are talking about this

JARED LETO✔@JaredLeto

On March 24, this movement will take to the streets to demand we end the epidemic of mass shootings. Sign the petition: http://marchforourlivespetition.com

I believe this is set to be one of the biggest marches in history.

6:31 PM - Mar 24, 2018

March for Our Lives

Sign this petition in support of #MarchForOurLives marchforourlivespetition.com
marchforourlivespetition.com

1,973

580 people are talking about this

Steven Tyler✔@IamStevenT

THIS IS A WE PROBLEM...IM BEING WOKEN UP....VIETNAM/SELMA/WATERGATE...ALL OVER AGAIN....TO THE STUDENTS WHO ARE SURVIVORS...WHO LOST FRIENDS...SURVIVED THE UNTHIKABLE
THE MARCHES MAY BE WINDING DOWN BUT WERE ABOUT TO WIND SHIT UP! SEE YOU SHORTLY MAUI! @AMarch4OurLives @Everytown

6:59 PM - Mar 24, 2018

1,262

349 people are talking about this

keith buckley✔@deathoftheparty

I’m really glad my kid will grow up in their world and not ours #MarchForOurLives

12:28 PM - Mar 24, 2018

608

72 people are talking about this

Vans Warped Tour✔@VansWarpedTour

WARPED CARES : @AMarch4OurLives x @HeadCountOrg
don’t miss the @AMarch4OurLives gun safety marches happening all over America on the 24th.
volunteer with @HeadCountOrg to register voters
march & make a difference: http://bit.ly/2tZT8e7
#MarchForOurLives #warpedtour

1:06 PM - Mar 21, 2018

325

53 people are talking about this

Paul McCartney Remembers John Lennon at March for Our Lives Rally in New York

"One of my best friends was killed in gun violence right around here, so it's important to me," Beatles legend says of John Lennon

Paul McCartney attended a March for Our Lives sister protest in New York to support those demanding an end to gun violence. Spencer Platt

By Daniel Kreps

22 hours ago

In a brief interview with CNN at the rally, the Beatles legend said, "One of my best friends was killed in gun violence right around here, so it's important to me," referring to the murder of John Lennon in 1980.

McCartney, wearing a shirt that read "We Can End Gun Violence," also told CNN that while he didn't know whether the rallies or anything would ultimately end gun violence, "This is what we can do, so I'm here to do it." McCartney added that he attended the New York march "just to support the people."

McCarney was one of the many artists and celebrities joining the thousands of students in the streets demanding an end to gun violence and stricter gun control laws.

At the main rally in Washington, D.C., Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Ben Platt, Vic Mensa and Common all took the stage to provide musical interludes between the speeches delivered by victims of gun violence, including the students of Parkland, Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

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Ariana Grande, Miley, Common, More Perform at March For Our Lives Rally

Image result for March for Our Lives Rally common

Andra Day, Vic Mensa, Demi Lovato, and others also took the stage at the Washington, D.C. demonstration

Ariana Grande, photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Today, hundreds of thousands of people showed up in Washington, D.C. for the March For Our Lives rally.

Image result for March for Our Lives Rally music

Organized by the survivors of the recent mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, the demonstration was a call for gun control reform.

Image result for March for Our Lives Rally music

Along with moving speeches from student advocates, artists performed in support of the call for action.

Image result for March for Our Lives Rally music

Ariana Grande took the stage to sing “Be Alright,” while Miley Cyrus delivered her 2009 track “The Climb.”

Related image

Common joined Andra Day to share their Grammy-nominated track “Stand Up for Something.” Watch their performances below. Vic Mensa, Demi Lovato, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Ben Platt, and Jennifer Hudson also took the stage.

Image result for March for Our Lives Rally music

Over 800 sister March For Our Lives rallies took place across the nation. Paul McCartney was one of the supporters at the Washington rally—in an interview, he referenced the shooting death of his former bandmate John Lennon.

Image result for March for Our Lives Rally music

R.E.M.’s Michael Stipeshowed his solidarity with a snippet of a new solo song called “Future, If Future” dedicated to the anti-gun violence movement.

Image result for March for Our Lives Rally music

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Reply #27 posted 03/27/18 7:01am

https://singersroom.com/c...tes-album/

Toni Braxton Releases ‘Sex & Cigarettes’ Album (Free Full Album Stream)

Sony Music Overhauls Legacy Label to Adapt to Streaming World (EXCLUSIVE)

By Jem Aswad

@jemaswad

CREDIT: BINDER/HOWE PRODS./KOBAL/REX/SHU

During the second half of the 1980s, the arrival of the compact disc turned the music business into a money-spinning juggernaut, with the format moving from essentially zero early in the decade to 400 million units produced in 1988 alone. But that explosive growth was driven less by superstars of the era — although Whitney Houston and Guns N’ Roses sold many millions of the high-priced discs — than by people replacing their old vinyl albums and cassettes with a more convenient format.

The same syndrome has taken hold with streaming: According to BuzzAngle’s 2017 year-end report, a whopping 51% of songs consumed are from “deep catalog” (music three or more years old), with an additional 12.5% coming from “catalog” (18 months to three years old). Which means that for all the discovery opportunities that a virtually unlimited pool of music can offer, people are using it far more to hear music they already know, or to explore previously untraveled corners of a genre or a favorite artist’s oeuvre.

That trend was not lost on new Sony Music Entertainment CEO Rob Stringer. For 28 years, the company has been host to one of the most popular c...ss, Legacy, which has won multiple Grammy Awards for beautifully curated collections from Sony’s vast repertoire — which includes Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Miles Davis, Johnny Cash, Jimi Hendrix, Michael Jackson and many others — as well as new releases from heritage artists like Willie Nelson and Earth, Wind & Fire. But in recent months management found the business to be too oriented toward physical releases, and a major reorganization is under way, a source close to the situation tells Variety. By mutual consent, Legacy president Adam Block agreed to step down earlier this year, and several other staffers have or will leave the company.

Yet Legacy, which is housed within Sony’s Commercial Music Group under the direction of president Richard Story, is also staffing up in the digital space, with nine new roles and more likely to come. The source tells Variety that the company felt renewed urgency in realizing it did not have sufficient staffers specializing in deep catalog, streaming, marketing and analytics. The insider stressed that the company will continue to release lavish boxed sets and other physical product, but it has moved to correct that imbalance.

Promoting catalog on streaming is a dramatically different proposition than pushing physical product, according to music-retail veteran Amy Dietz, exec VP and GM of global distribution and services platform InGrooves, who spent 15 years as an executive at Warner Music’s Alternative Distribution Alliance. “Format changes have always given catalog a bump,” she says. “But what’s different now is the idea of lifetime value — before, you were trying to get people to buy something once, but now you’re trying to get people to keep coming back.”

Key to that repeat business is discovery, which is generally discussed in terms of new music but is just as relevant for catalog. “When a song or an artist is featured on, say, [former] President Obama’s Spotify playlist, or in film or TV or in a commercial, it can lead to a big boost in streaming numbers,” says another major-label executive. “For example, [the N.W.A biopic] ‘Straight Outta Compton’ led thousands of people to discover N.W.A and Ice Cube and Dr. Dre’s older cuts.”

Dietz points to Jai Wolf’s song “Indian Summer” — which was released in 2015 but has taken on new life via multiple syncs, including an Izze beverage campaign and uses in “American Idol” and “So You Think You Can Dance” — as an example of how such factors can make a new hit out of an older song (it has nearly 55 million plays on Spotify). Also key are playlists like Spotify’s “This Is” — which combine an artist’s older music with new — and recommendations on streaming services, which represent more frequent and active endorsement than what was available in the physical world. “There are all kinds of ways of rabbit-holing into the platforms now, where one artist leads to another and another, and you can connect the dots musically,” adds Dietz. “You didn’t really have that in a record store unless someone told you.” She also notes playlist promotion and seasonal opportunities like Christmas and St. Patrick’s Day as ways to get classic songs in front of fresh audiences.

Just as streaming has broken down barriers between musical genres, it can break them down between eras as well. “If you’re a 14-year-old kid who likes N.W.A or Led Zeppelin but doesn’t know Public Enemy or Cream, there’s a whole world just a click away,” the major-label exec says. “The trick is leading them to it.”

[Edited 3/27/18 7:08am]

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Reply #28 posted 03/28/18 1:15pm

JUST ANNOUNCED: AFROPUNK 2018

LINEUP:

ERYKAH BADU, TYLER, THE CREATOR, MIGUEL, SPECIAL GUEST TBA, THE INTERNET, JANELLE MONAE, TWIN SHADOW, JADEN SMITH, IBEYI, WILLOW SMITH, LOLAWOLF, DANIEL CAESAR, JACOB BANKS, FANTASTIC NEGRITO, H.E.R., YUNA, WICKED WISDOM, DENZEL CURRY, SMINO, SECRET CIRCLE (WIKI, ANTWON, LIL UGLY MANE), THE FEVER 333, LION BABE, NAKHANÉ, JAMILA WOODS, JESSIE REYEZ, MAHALIA, JPEGMAFIA, SHO MADJOZI, BLACKPANTERA, DUCKWRTH, TRASH TALK, LOUDER THAN QUIET, NOVA TWINS, YOUTHMAN & MORE TBA!

Tickets on sale now!

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Reply #29 posted 03/28/18 9:37pm

MickyDolenz

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Doctor and Hospital Deny Wrongdoing in Glenn Frey’s Death
by Debra Filcman March 28, 2018 Ultimate Classic Rock

The doctor and hospital named in the wrongful death suit filed by Glenn Frey's widow have denied any culpability in his death.

The Eagles co-founder died in January 2016 at age 67 after hospitalization for a host of ailments, including ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis and pneumonia.

In January of this year, Cindy Frey filed a suit seeking unspecified damages against Mount Sinai Hospital and the gastroenterologist who treated her husband there, Steven Itzkowitz. The suit claimed that they failed to “promptly and properly treat [Frey’s] ulcerative colitis and associated symptoms and diseases of the bowel."

The doctor and hospital are now seeking to have the suit dismissed, denying any wrongdoing. "The injuries of the plaintiff were caused in whole or in part by the culpable conduct of the plaintiff," their response read.

In the months leading up to Frey's death, he had been treated at the hospital, but "as a result of the foregoing acts of negligence, Glenn Frey was rendered sick, lame and disabled, suffered injuries, pain, mental anguish, was compelled to seek medical care and attention, incurred expenses thereof, and was permanently injured and disabled until the time of his death," the suit read.

In addition, the suit claims the hospital and doctor failed to “promptly and properly assess the patient for respiratory issues” and ignored an infection.

Frey's health problems became public in November 2015, when the Eagles were forced to pull out of the Kennedy Center Honors due to his pending surgery.

The Eagles have recently returned to touring, with Frey's son, Deacon, taking on some of his dad's onstage duties.

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